As Cushman & Wakefield rises to the top of the City leasing table, the sun may be setting on the market’s bull run
Cushman & Wakefield rocketed to the top of EG’s London Offices Market Analysis League Table in the first quarter of 2016, as the effects of its tie-up with DTZ found their way into take-up figures.
Purists may debate whether C&W bought the title, but there were other changes at the top, with Knight Frank marching into second place and Strutt & Parker moving into the top 10.
Though the first quarter may have seemed relatively solid in terms of take-up, caution is creeping into agency rhetoric, and the sun may be about to set on City leasing’s bull run.
Take-up, sitting at 3.1m sq ft, was up by 6.2% on Q1 2015, but down by 27% on Q4.
Uncertainty around the EU referendum is merely the most immediate concern among a raft of macro-economic factors taking their toll on occupier confidence, from falling oil prices to a slowdown in China and the naming and shaming of offshore property owners.
Many of the deals signed in Q1 had been in the offing since last year, and fewer deals being negotiated now could lead to falling take-up in the coming months.
Without the largest deal of the quarter, the letting of 316,000 sq ft to Thomson Reuters at 5 Canada Square, E14, take-up would have been down by 5% on the same period last year.
