Live · August 2026
The London Office Movement Index

771 London companies are about to change their office.

Every week, hundreds of London companies move toward a move, refit or refurbishment — a lease ending, a planning application, a growth spurt. The Index counts them, live, by submarket and sector — so you can see where the demand is before it reaches the market.

Built from Signal's live data · figures update weekly · computed 8 August 2026
155,131
London companies tracked
Signal, August 2026
771
in market right now
Scored ≥ 60
40
hot — moving imminently
Scored ≥ 80
382
lease events in next 18 months
HM Land Registry

Across the 155,131 London companies Signal tracks, 771 are in market for an office move, refit or refurbishment right now — and 40 are moving imminently. A further 382 have a lease expiry or break approaching within the next 18 months — the window in which most office decisions are made. — Signal, August 2026

Where

By submarket

In-market companies by London postcode area.

City & fringe (EC)
293
West End (W)
191
Midtown (WC)
78
Southbank / SE
68
Southwest (SW)
51
North & NW
48
East (E)
34
Hottest single district: W1W — 36 companies in market, more than any other postcode in London.
Who

By sector

The most active sectors moving toward an office change.

Finance & insurance
186
Legal & consulting
107
Tech & software
106
Professional & creative
82
Media & publishing
51
Finance leads — concentrated in the City (EC2/EC3) and Canary Wharf, where lease events are clustering.
When

The lease-event pipeline.

Companies with a known lease event ahead — the clearest signal of a move or refit, and the window to reach them first.

0–6 months
142
Deciding now — often already briefing
6–12 months
134
The sweet spot for fit-out & design
12–18 months
106
Early movers — reach them before the tender
The market backdrop

A tightening market — which is why timing wins.

Central London office supply is tightening at the top. Vacancy has eased to around 7.5% in early 2026 from a peak near 10.6% a year earlier; take-up through 2025 ran broadly in line with the five-year average, with roughly 70% of it going to Grade A space — the best buildings are the scarcest. With prime space short and new completions forecast to fall sharply in 2026, the firms that reach an occupier before they go to market win the work.

~7.5%
Central London vacancy, early 2026 (peaked ~10.6% in early 2025)
~70%
of take-up going to Grade A — demand concentrated in the best space
−40%
forecast fall in new completions in 2026 (~1.2m sq ft)
Market context as of early 2026, from published Savills, CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield and CoStar reporting. Movement figures: Signal's live data.

How the Index is built

Signal tracks 155,131 London companies and scores each on how likely it is to move, refit or refurbish its office soon — using the public records that precede an office change: HM Land Registry lease data, Companies House filings, local-authority planning applications, and hiring and growth signals. "In market" means a company scoring 60 or above; "hot" means 80 or above. The Index is rebuilt from this live data and refreshed weekly.

Office-move signals from public record (HM Land Registry, Companies House, local-authority planning) plus hiring, growth and news. Website evidence is gathered by our identified SignalBot from public company pages only — robots.txt honoured, no personal data. Figures as of 8 August 2026.

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Archive

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August 2026 · 770 in market July 2026 · 707 in market June 2026 · 1,257 in market

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