Roll the dice, the London office market is back, with take-up growing 46% in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012


City office deals rose by 50% to 2m sq ft in the first half of 2013 as tenants raced around the board bagging new-build schemes. Amazon’s deal at Sixty London, EC1, gave landlord Axa bragging rights for the biggest letting of the quarter.


But the West End is on a losing streak where, with supply shrinking, take-up was down 11% in the year to the end of June to 1.1m sq ft. Its top deal of Q2, a 45,000 sq ft letting to Thames Tunnel, didn’t even make the overall London top 10, making an appearance at number 13.


Google’s mega deal at King’s Cross still dominates first-half stats for central London. Activity in Q2 was 15% higher than Q1’s figure at 3.1m sq ft while average leasehold deal sizes were up 50% – the largest since Q1 2010.


The real victory, however, was Midtown, with tenants taking a chance on the submarket. Two of the top five London deals landed in Midtown – to Bird & Bird at New Fetter Lane and Saatchi and Saatchi on Chancery Lane, virtually trebling its take-up to 1.5m sq ft.