The City of London lost 6% of a square mile in office space in the past year, more than any other local district in the country.
The City lost 166,000 square metres in the year to 31 March, according to data from property data provider Search Acumen.
The rest of London didn’t fare much better, with Westminster losing the second-most space at 124,000 square metres and Hillingdon and Tower Hamlets also in the top five.
Meanwhile, by portion of overall space lost, outer London boroughs were among the hardest hit, with Enfield fifth and Harrow sixth.
In total, 1.47 million square metres of office space has been lost across the UK, while 4.95 million square metres have been lost since before the pandemic.
Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, said: “Search Acumen’s analysis suggests office space was declining even before the onset of the pandemic as the use of flexible and remote working spread.
“Having staff work from home more often has hugely accelerated this trend and the end of pandemic restrictions has done little to slow the rate of decline, with office space disappearing almost four times as fast in the last two years as the previous eight.
“Workers have largely maintained productivity levels despite new hybrid working patterns, which will discourage some firms from reverting back to full-time office mandates. This could also trigger firms to cut their real estate footprint even further or diversify their model through co-working spaces.”
Still, there are signs that demand for London office space has picked up since the end of the period measured.
New data from real estate consultancy JLL said there was 9.9 million square feet of active central London office demand in May. That was up 3% from a month earlier and 11% higher than the long-term average.It added that space under offer rose marginally over May.
