{"id":3206,"date":"2026-04-02T09:35:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/scotland\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:35:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:35:16","slug":"edinburgh-office-market-bounces-back-with-39-rise-in-take-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/scotland\/news\/3206-edinburgh-office-market-bounces-back-with-39-rise-in-take-up","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh office market &#8216;bounces back&#8217; with 39% rise in take-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Edinburgh\u2019s office market had an &#8216;encouraging&#8217; start to the year, rebounding from a subdued 2025, despite the uncertainty caused by geopolitical issues.<\/p>\n<p>Commercial property consultancy Knight Frank found that there was 128,000 sq ft of city centre off take-up in the first quarter, up 39% compared to the 92,000 sq ft during the same period last year. That saw the Grade A vacancy rate remain steady below 4%.<\/p>\n<p>There were 37 deals &#8211; up 12% compared on last year &#8211; with the finance and professional services sectors being the most active. Energy occupiers also continued to be &#8216;buoyant&#8217;, after several strong years of lease activity.<\/p>\n<p>Recent deals include EY securing more than 36,000 sq ft at 3 Haymarket Square, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/scotland\/news\/2982-ey-scotland-relocates-to-baillie-giffords-new-office-building\">subletting the space from Baillie Gifford<\/a>, and Apatura taking 5,806 sq ft at recently refurbished Rutland Court in the Exchange District.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Edinburgh saw its lowest level of annual office take-up since 2020, with just under 500,000 sq ft of deals. However, Knight Frank said this could at least partially be put down to timing, with lease events tending to work in five-year cycles, which could have the knock-on effect of a more positive 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Toby Withall, office agency partner at Knight Frank in Edinburgh, commented that the events of the last few weeks have seen many occupiers pause for thought, as they wait to see how the situation in the Middle East evolves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNotwithstanding what is happening at an international level, there are some positives to take from the first quarter in Edinburgh: the energy sector is still buoyant, adding to the finance and professional services sectors that are the bedrock of the city, and the early figures suggest we could see more deal activity in 2026 \u2013 albeit from a comparatively low base last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTake-up during 2025 was no doubt influenced by the fact it was five years post-Covid, a lot of agreements were put on hold during 2020 and 2021, given the circumstances, and the knock-on effect is that a lot of lease events have been pushed into the next few years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the same time, though, the development pipeline remains very restricted and, with inflation remaining sticky, it is unlikely much more new space will be coming through,\u201d he concluded, adding: \u201cThere is, however, a reasonable level of supply with the all-grade vacancy rate still above 10% \u2013 but occupiers continue to opt for high-quality space in prime, amenity-rich locations, where there are few available options.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There were 37 deals in the capital during the first quarter &#8211; up 12% compared to last year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278857,"featured_media":3207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"coauthors":[137126],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-edinburgh-lothians","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Edinburgh office market &#039;bounces back&#039; with 39% rise in take-up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There were 37 deals in the capital during the first quarter - up 12% compared to last year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/scotland\/news\/3206-edinburgh-office-market-bounces-back-with-39-rise-in-take-up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Edinburgh office market &#039;bounces back&#039; 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