Investor spend on central London offices has dropped £6bn this year

Most Londoners still don't identity with their borough the way they do with their neighbourhood (Picture: Getty Images)

Spending on central London offices has tumbled by around £6 billion this year, but the Tory election victory is set to boost the market, new research said on Thursday.

Around £11 billion of City and West End office sales have been agreed in the year to date, and that could climb to £12 billion by the end of the month. In 2018 £18 billion of transactions took place.

Julian Sandbach, head of central London capital markets at JLL which compiled the data, said “depressed volumes” were anticipated following political uncertainty and Brexit jitters in 2019.

He said investors have adopted a cautious approach, and a number of would-be sellers held off putting buildings up for sale until they knew what the general election result would be.

However, his firm calculates there is over £60 billion of domestic and international capital looking to buy UK property.

Sandbach said: “The result of the general election offers the very real prospect of the government providing clarity around the UK’s exit from the EU, and we expect this to lead to a further uptick in the deployment of international capital seeking to access central London opportunities.”

He added: “The election result is likely to increase the level of liquidity targeting London real estate.”