London’s unused office space the equivalent of 17 Houses of Parliament

London has 20.2 million sq. ft of unused office space, 3.3 million greater than 2020.

Lasting results of the pandemic, the rising reputation of the hybrid working strategy, mixed with sky excessive business hire has made office working much less interesting for companies and their employees.

As of the finish of 2021, business hire in London was formally the highest in Europe, in line with Statista, making the future chance of office take up even much less possible.

To assist visualize the sheer measurement of unused office space in the capital, not-for-profit social enterprise, The Utilize Project, have in contrast the amount of empty office areas to well-known London landmarks.

The knowledge confirmed that London as an entire has a staggering 20.2 million sq. ft of unused space, the equivalent of nearly 17 Houses of Parliaments.

The space of London with the largest quantity of accessible office space is the City of London. Whilst the space is dwelling to an estimated 27,365 companies, inclusive of the UK’s main monetary and insurance coverage firms, it presently has 5.91 million sq. ft of accessible space. This will be in comparison with an infinite 98 St Pauls Cathedrals.

The West End falls not far behind, with 5.85 million sq. ft of accessible office space, equivalent to 75 Buckingham Palaces.

This comes as no shock as the priciest space in London for business hire is the West End, with office areas going at a price of 117.50 GPB per sq. metre as late as final yr.

In the Docklands, there’s space equivalent to 91 Westminster Abbey’s and in Southbank accessible office space equates to 84 Royal Albert Halls.

Despite these surprising statistics, many companies are nonetheless reluctant to put money into office space since the pandemic. But the utilization of in the meantime areas is shortly turning into a helpful technique for combatting empty business models.

Mahmud Shahnawaz, founder and director of The Utilize Project, explains “Empty commercial property brings with it a realm of issues for the community, from increased crime rates to poor local economies.”

“Meanwhile spaces can build a community, grow local economy, create jobs, reduce crime and inject life back into high-streets.”

“They also give opportunity to SMEs, who can’t compete with current commercial rental prices, to have their start.”, provides Shahnawaz.

More than 22,500 business models have been empty for at the very least 6 months, in line with Centre for London, and The Utilize Project insist that in the meantime space schemes can present invaluable profit for all landlords, builders and native communities.

Given the present trajectory and uncapped rising business prices, the social enterprise predicts much more office areas will develop into accessible all through 2022, making the idea of in the meantime areas much more essential for holding London communities alive.