London Grade A Office Space Hits Record 80% Take-Up

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22 August 2025

Cushman & Wakefield has reported that 80 per cent of the total office take-up in Q2 2025 in Central London was Grade A.

The commercial real estate firm describes it as evidence for a “flight to quality”, with firms increasingly willing to pay a premium to secure best-in-class space.

56 per cent of the total take-up was in the City of London, followed by 30 per cent in the West End and 15 per cent in East London. The largest deal of the Q2 was McDermott Will & Emery’s 107,000 sq ft pre-let of 7 Brook Street in Mayfair. 

669,000 sq ft of Grade A space was leased, up 22 per cent versus the long-term average and accounting for a record-breaking 90 per cent of the total volume.  

Central London office take-up totalled 2.55 million sq ft in Q2 2025, and 2.21 million sq ft of new space was delivered to the market, the highest quarterly volume since 2020. 87 per cent of the new space is already pre-let.

Cushman & Wakefield predicts that the delivery of new building stock is expected to fall short of demand over the near term. 14.4 million sq ft of additional space is under construction, with 33 per cent pre-let and 41 per cent due for completion in 2025, leaving just 6.76 million sq ft under construction and available to complete between 2026 and 2030. 

James Campbell, Head of London Office Leasing at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “During the pandemic and recovery period, the rise of home working led many firms to ‘right-size’ by reducing office floorspace, this led to sublease supply surging to a record high in Q1 2021 at 7 million sq ft. 

“The picture looks very different now. Sublease availability has fallen in all but one of the last 11 quarters, to 4 million sq ft in Q2 2025, trending back to pre-pandemic levels. This has been driven by firms taking their space back from the market to reoccupy themselves as employees return to the office.  

“This trend reflects not only the health of the Central London office market and its occupiers, but also demonstrates how the office remains as the primary and preferred place of work. Looking to 2026 and beyond, the constrained development pipeline suggests a further squeeze on the supply of new office space entering the market and a continued demand for Grade A space.” 

Picture: a photograph showing a communal seating area in an office, with a city skyline shown in the background. Image Credit: Unsplash

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 22 August 2025

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