The West End market continued to perform well in the first quarter of the year. Take-up in the W1 & SW1 postcodes totalled around 860,000 sq. ft. which is slightly down on the quarterly average but consistent with the pattern of lower take-up in the first quarter of the year.

Availability in the West End fell below the 3 million sq. ft. mark to 2.9 in the first quarter. This represents a low point in the cycle so far that peaked at nearly 8 million sq. ft. at the end of 2004.

West (W2, W8, W6, W14, SW7 & SW3)

Take-up in the fourth quarter came in at under 260,000 sq. ft. in this diverse area. This is up on the fourth quarter of 2006 and is the product of some large deals at 1Hammersmith Grove, New Star Asset Management Group took 35,351 sq. ft. at Knightsbridge Green. There is around 2 million sq. ft. available in these postcodes; this is down on the cyclical peak of 3.4 million sq. ft. seen in mid 2004. This includes 250,000 sq. ft. at Paddington Central on the market and 257,000 sq. ft. of secondhand space available at 1 Kingdom Street, W2

Midtown (WC1-WC2)

Take-up in the first quarter in the WC postcodes was 230,000 sq. ft., this is roughly the same as the fourth quarter of 2006. FOCUS records 1 million sq. ft. of available space in the WC postcodes, down on the previous quarter and a third of the volume seen in early 2005. The Midtown area is short of large new or refurbished space. The development pipeline hows over 1.3 million sq. ft. under construction or refurbishment.