Office space is currently the most in-demand commercial property asset across England, the continued return to a physical workplace sees offices fall back in favour with British businesses, according to BPS London.

At a national level, office space currently commands the highest level of investor demand of any commercial asset class, with 30.5% of office opportunities across England already sold subject to contract or under offer. Retail follows closely behind at 30.2%, while industrial and warehouse opportunities account for 27.5%. Leisure and hospitality assets continue to attract lower levels of interest, with 16.1% of opportunities having found an investor. 

Investor appetite for office space is particularly strong across several regions with the West Midlands topping the table, with 39% of office opportunities already attracting investor interest, followed by the South East at 36.6% and the East of England at 33.1%.

Mahir Vachani, Director at BPS London Developments, said: “The pandemic had a profound impact on the commercial office sector, as working from home became the default for many businesses almost overnight. However, what we’ve seen over the last year in particular is a decisive move back towards office-based working, with the vast majority of employees now either fully or predominantly based in the workplace. 

“That renewed occupier demand is clearly feeding through into investor appetite for office space across much of the country. London, however, remains something of an outlier, largely due to the sheer volume of office space currently available to rent, much of which no longer aligns with how businesses and employees want to work today.”

In London, however, investor appetite for office space is currently trailing other commercial asset classes, with only 21.6% of available office opportunities in the capital attracting investor interest, with industrial, leisure, and retail all seeing higher demand.