OFFICE availability in central London is at its highest level in 15 years, the latest sign of how the pandemic-driven shift to remote working is upending demand for commercial property.

Availability was close to 31 million square feet in August 2022, according to real-estate data company CoStar. That’s the equivalent of about 60 Gherkin skyscrapers, and is up 51 per cent from the 20 million square feet that was available at the end of 2019.

The last time there was this much empty space, office values plunged, causing billions in commercial real estate loans to sour. The amount of square footage available in the capital has continued to rise this year, although at a slower pace than in the previous 2 years, CoStar found.

The data is also likely to worry those bosses who have been pushing for a widespread return to the office.

Right now less than half of workers in the UK’s banking sector go into the office on an average day, and less than a fifth of insurance sector employees do so, according to a survey by consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates. BLOOMBERG