The total volume of space under construction within central London stood at 9.2 million sq ft at the end of Q1 2012, DJD's latest Crane Survey shows. This equates to three times more than at the bottom of the development cycle at the end of 2010, when developments were 2.7 million sq ft, suggesting that developers are looking to profit from low delivery costs.
To add to this, a large amount of these new schemes are due for completion in 2013 (1.1 million sq ft, of which 779,000 sq ft is speculative). Further there is a trend for refurbishment as opposed to ground up development. The report shows that refurbishments now account for 22% of construction activity. In these austere times, it is common for tenants to take second hand space over new build space, such as the sub-letting of 20 Moorgate by the Prudencial Regulation Authority.
With respect to new developments, the Cheesegrater, due for completion in 2014 continues its progress - as this recent picture (taken by Lumberjack on the http://www.skyscrapercity.com forum) shows:
Still lots of cranes but as you can see it's coming along nicely.
The survey suggests that development is beginning to spread out from the City and West End into King's Cross, Docklands and the Southbank. In fact, only Midtown now has less development activity than six months ago.
However, despite all this it has to be noted that construction does still stand low on a historic basis - just lower than the average ten year volume of London development. It will be interesting to see what the new developments will bring with them.
The full Drivers Jonas Deloitte London Offices Survey can be viewed HERE
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