Jones Lang Lasalle reports that 1.1m sq ft of offices have been leased across the Western Corridor in the first half of 2019.
This is an increase on the corresponding period of 2018 of 14%. The Western Corridor includes West London, along with part of the Thames Valley.
Large transactions highlighted include Li Fung’s move to White City (50,431 sq ft) and Canon’s letting at 5 The Square in Stockley Park of an extra 36,000 sq ft.
According to JLL the last two years have seen the Western Corridor office market characterised by a “sustained erosion of the development pipeline and a lack of new speculative development”. At the half year point supply of Grade A space approximately totalled 5m sq ft, a reduction of 17.4% year on year. The development pipeline is beginning to respond and stands at 1.37m sq ft on site, JLL said, “albeit this is less than half of the 3.3m sq ft of onsite development stock recorded in 2016”.
This represents an investment opportunity, with take-up levels healthy, and rents in some areas increasing.
