FreeOfficeFinder research · October 2026
The True Cost of Renting an Office Across the UK
Central London is still the most expensive place in the UK to rent an office, but costs are changing fast elsewhere too.
In cities like Bristol and Leeds, office occupancy is now higher than in London. Good space is becoming harder to find, and prices have climbed sharply since July 2021.
Desk prices in Milton Keynes are also up by more than a third since July 2021, with St Albans reaching record highs alongside Bristol.
This report looks at where office rental prices are rising, why, and how they compare across 61 areas of London and 19 towns and cities in the UK.
How We Did This
Our research uses our own pricing tool, which has recorded desk prices across the office centres we list every quarter since 2015. The latest figures are for Q3 2026.
We compared our findings with official government figures.
Full details are provided in the methodology at the end of this report.
Key Findings
- Milton Keynes desk prices are up 39% since July 2021, the biggest rise in our top seven.
- Bristol and St Albans are at record highs, with Bristol's desk prices up 16% in the last year alone.
- Office occupancy is higher in Bristol and Leeds, reaching 69% and 65% in early 2026, compared with 42% in London.
- A desk in central London costs £634 a month, double the UK average of £316.
- A desk in Mayfair costs more than four times as much as one in Enfield, at £1,006 a month, against £218.
- At £103 per desk per month, Newcastle is the cheapest place for coworking, just over a third of the price in London (£286).
What's Driving Demand for Offices in Cities like Bristol and Leeds
Busier offices
Bristol and Leeds have the highest office occupancy of the major UK cities, and both are well ahead of London. In 2025, more than twice as many established firms moving offices in the major regional cities and the South East expanded as downsized.
Better, not bigger
Hybrid working has led businesses to choose better offices rather than bigger ones. Of the companies that moved in 2025, almost four in five chose high-quality office space.
Good offices are running out
Just 3% of premium office space in the largest regional cities is empty.
Almost nothing new is being built
In 2026, these cities are expected to complete only about a third of the new office space they typically delivered each year between 2020 and 2024.
To find the top seven, we looked for cities where desk prices rose faster than the UK average (17%), and where official government figures also showed office rents rising faster than average.
The Top 7 Cities for Rising Office Rental Prices
Milton Keynes
+39% since July 2021, from £221 to £308 a month
Milton Keynes is one of the UK's fastest-growing cities, yet no major new office developments are being built. Between 2011 and 2021, its population grew at more than twice the average rate for England, and around a third of the city's office demand now comes from businesses elsewhere.
Liverpool
+34% since July 2021, from £196 to £262 a month
Business numbers in Liverpool grew 3.5% over the past year, and office lettings in early 2026 were up two-thirds year on year. Official office rental values rose 18% between 2021 and 2024, faster than the England and Wales average.
Leeds
+30% since July 2021, from £264 to £343 a month
Leeds is a busy finance hub that is short of good space, and the Bank of England is opening an office in the city. Desk prices dipped in the last 12 months but are still well above July 2021 levels.
St Albans Record high
+30% since July 2021, from £253 to £328 a month
Costa Coffee is moving its UK headquarters to the city, and official office rental values rose 23% between 2021 and 2024, one of the biggest rises in our study.
Newcastle
+29% since July 2021, from £162 to £209 a month
Demand in Newcastle is being driven by two government departments, the DWP and HMRC, which are moving into new offices in the city in 2027, including Pilgrims Quarter. Just 3% of premium office space is empty, and desk prices are rising again after a sharp fall in 2019 and 2020.
Bristol Record high
+28% since July 2021, from £291 to £372 a month, up 16% in the last year
The AI boom is helping to drive demand in Bristol. Isambard-AI, the UK's most powerful AI supercomputer, opened nearby in 2025, and chip designer Graphcore signed the city's largest office deal of the first half of 2026. Bristol also has the highest office occupancy of the major UK cities, with less than 1% of its premium office space empty.
Brighton
+27% since July 2021, from £271 to £344 a month
Brighton's economy has grown twice as fast as the national average since 2013, yet less than a third of its empty office space is considered premium. In January, Capgemini signed the area's biggest office deal in nearly three years.
How We Got Here
- 2020 to 2021: offices empty as remote working rises: In April 2020, almost half of the working population did some of their work from home.
- 2022 to 2025: hybrid working becomes established: By 2025, more than a quarter of working adults had hybrid arrangements, while most civil servants were expected in the office at least 60% of the time.
- 2026: demand for the best space increases: Office attendance hit its highest level since the pandemic in February 2026, and most of the office space taken in the top regional cities this year was considered premium.
Property costs continue to rise: Business rates in England and Wales are now set using office rental values 14.5% higher than in 2021.
Rent growth is expected to slow in the remainder of 2026, although rents in Birmingham and Manchester for high-quality workspace are still forecast to rise by double digits.
How Does Your Town or City Rank?
Central London is the most expensive place to rent an office, with a desk costing £634 a month on average.
Outside London, Cambridge is the most expensive (£588), followed by Bristol (£372), then Oxford (£362).
The cheapest location in our study is Basingstoke (£190), followed by Cardiff (£199) and Newcastle (£209). These figures are the price of one desk in a private office in each area.
Central London: Still the UK's Most Expensive Place to Rent an Office
A coworking desk in central London costs £326 a month, more than anywhere outside the capital.
At the top end, rents for premium offices in Mayfair and St James's are almost four times the highest found outside of London.
What's Happening in London
- Faster growth in outer London. Office rental values rose 18.6% in outer London between 2021 and 2024, against 14% in inner London. Harrow saw the biggest increase, yet it remains London's second-cheapest area for a desk.
- AI firms are moving into King's Cross. In 2025, AI companies accounted for a third of all office space taken by London tech firms, up from just 4% in 2015. Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Meta are also all based in the area.
- Record empty space in Docklands. Office vacancy in the Docklands hit a record of almost 19% in early 2025, as HSBC and others announced plans to leave the area.
- Fewer new office developments. Construction began on about a third less new office space in London in 2025 than in 2024.
Central London Costs Almost Double the Rest of the Capital
A coworking desk costs £326 a month in central London, against £242 in the rest of the city.
Where Does Your London Area Rank?
We ranked 61 areas across London by the monthly cost of a single desk in a private office. The top 40 most expensive locations are all in Central London.
Most expensive
- Mayfair £1,006
- Soho £901
- Monument £825
- St James's £809
- Victoria £790
Cheapest
- Enfield £218
- Harrow £238
- Croydon £244
- Park Royal £280
- Wimbledon £288
For coworking, Bank is the most expensive area (£428 a desk), followed by Embankment (£423) and St James's (£408).
Office Rental Prices Around the UK
Beyond the capital, demand for high-quality space is strong and supply is tight.
- Scotland is split, with rental values rising in Edinburgh, steady in Glasgow and falling in Aberdeen.
Where Office Rental Values Are Rising Across the UK
Official office rental values, which are the government figures used to set business rates, are rising in 15 of the 19 towns and cities in our study, falling only in Aberdeen.
Each card shows the price of a desk in a private office (Q3 2026), its national ranking, whether official rental values are rising, steady, or falling, and key local developments.
Scotland: Three Cities Heading in Different Directions
All three Scottish cities cost less than the UK average of £316 a desk.
Edinburgh
£268 a desk a month
Most expensive in Scotland · 12th of 19 nationally
Developers are only starting new office projects once a tenant has signed up, and premium office rents have hit a record £48 per sq. ft.
Aberdeen
£267 a desk a month
2nd in Scotland · 13th of 19 nationally
Aberdeen has the highest share of empty offices among the UK's major cities (18.4%), with energy firms taking 83% of the space let between April and June 2026.
Glasgow
£251 a desk a month
Cheapest in Scotland · 15th of 19 nationally
The number of businesses grew 3.7% in the past year, almost double the UK rate. The Home Office is taking 80,600 sq. ft. at 200 Broomielaw, the city's biggest office deal since 2022.
Wales: Cardiff is Cheap, but Its Best Offices Are Scarce
Cardiff
£199 a desk a month
The only Welsh city in our study · 18th of 19 nationally
Just 1.6% of Cardiff's premium office space is vacant, with most of the city's empty offices found in older buildings. Rents for high-quality offices rose 11.7% in a year, and lettings had their best first half since 2011.
The North: Three of Our Top Seven
Prices in the North range from £209 to £343 a desk, either side of the UK average of £316. Official rental values rose faster than the England and Wales average in all four cities.
Leeds
£343 a desk a month
Most expensive in the North · 7th of 19 nationally
No. 3 in our top seven (see above). Just 1.7% of premium offices are empty.
Manchester
£326 a desk a month
2nd in the North · 10th of 19 nationally
No major office developments are due to finish in 2026, and premium rents have reached a record £48 per sq. ft.
Liverpool
£262 a desk a month
3rd in the North · 14th of 19 nationally
No. 2 in our top seven (see above).
Newcastle
£209 a desk a month
Cheapest in the North · 17th of 19 nationally
No. 5 in our top seven (see above).
The Midlands: Birmingham's Best Offices Hit a Record
Birmingham
£347 a desk a month
The only Midlands city in our study · 5th of 19 nationally
Top-end rents hit a record £52 per sq. ft. and 92% of the offices let between April and June 2026 were considered high-quality. Birmingham has 8,840 office properties, more than any other city in England and Wales outside London.
The South East and East: The Widest Range of Prices
Cambridge is the most expensive place outside London, and Basingstoke the cheapest. Official rental values rose most in Milton Keynes, Oxford and St Albans, and least in Slough and Basingstoke.
Cambridge
£588 a desk a month
Most expensive in the South East and East · 1st of 19 nationally
GSK plans a 300,000 sq. ft. research centre in the city for more than 1,000 scientists.
Oxford
£362 a desk a month
2nd in the South East and East · 4th of 19 nationally
Almost no new offices are planned, even though Oxfordshire companies raised £230m of venture capital in the first three months of 2026, nearly as much as in the whole of 2025.
Brighton
£344 a desk a month
3rd in the South East and East · 6th of 19 nationally
No. 7 in our top seven (see above).
Reading
£336 a desk a month
4th in the South East and East · 8th of 19 nationally
2025 was Reading's busiest year for office lettings since 2018, and Microsoft took 79,000 sq. ft. of office space in the area this year.
St Albans
£328 a desk a month
5th in the South East and East · 9th of 19 nationally
No. 4 in our top seven (see above).
Milton Keynes
£308 a desk a month
6th in the South East and East · 11th of 19 nationally
No. 1 in our top seven (see above).
Slough
£218 a desk a month
7th in the South East and East · 16th of 19 nationally
A desk costs £118 a month less than in neighbouring Reading, and premium rents rose 5% this year as Siemens moved in.
Basingstoke
£190 a desk a month
Cheapest in the South East and East · 19th of 19 nationally
The most affordable place in our study to rent a desk.
The South West: Bristol at a Record High
Bristol
£372 a desk a month
The only South West city in our study · 3rd of 19 nationally
No. 6 in our top seven (see above). Top-end rents are at a record £52 per sq. ft.
What an Office Costs Your Business
Two desks in a private office cost £11,592 a year in London, £8,232 in Leeds and £8,928 in Bristol. Choosing Leeds over London saves £3,360 a year.
Coworking is a cheaper option. In London as a whole, a coworking desk costs £286 a month, against £483 for a desk in a private office. In Leeds, it's £203, against £343.
Most expensive coworking
- Cambridge £318
- London £286
- Milton Keynes £263
- Reading £245
- St Albans £241
Cheapest coworking
- Newcastle £103
- Glasgow £108
- Cardiff £167
- Manchester £170
- Basingstoke £176
“Central London is still the most expensive place to rent office space, but the biggest changes are happening elsewhere. We're seeing high occupancy and better-quality space becoming harder to find in cities like Leeds and Bristol, where our own data shows that desk prices are up by more than a quarter since July 2021.
“Where you base your business, and even which part of the city, can make a difference of hundreds of pounds a month. It pays to compare before you sign.”
- Compare neighbouring towns. A desk in Slough typically costs £218 a month, against £336 in Reading.
- Consider coworking. A coworking desk costs between £103 and £318 a month, depending on the city.
- Plan early. Premium office space is scarce in busy cities like Bristol, Leeds, and Manchester.
Methodology
All prices in this report come from our pricing tool, where anyone can look them up. The tool is updated every quarter. It works out an average desk price from typically five business centres in each area, and private office prices are based on a three-desk office. Current prices are the tool's Q3 2026 figures (dated 16 July 2026). We checked the results against official government figures.
- Desk price: the monthly price of one desk, in a private office or in coworking space, in Q3 2026 (the latest figures).
- UK average: the pricing tool's average across our 19 towns and cities (£316 a desk).
- Price changes: Q3 2021 (July) compared with Q3 2026 (July). Prices are not adjusted for inflation.
- Top seven: cities where desk prices rose faster than the UK average, and official office rental values rose faster than the England and Wales average.
- Office occupancy: how full offices are on an average day. This is not the same as how much space is empty.
- Small samples: where we list fewer than five buildings in an area, the tool uses pricing from other known centres, so treat these as a guide.
Where Our Data Comes From
- FreeOfficeFinder (our data): pricing tool, desk prices by quarter (2015 to 2026)
- Valuation Office Agency: 2026 business rates revaluation (England and Wales)
- Scottish Government: Non-domestic rates revaluation 2026 statistics
- Office for National Statistics: UK business: activity, size and location 2026; Census 2021; Consumer Prices Index
- Remit Consulting: office occupancy figures
See the full dataset → All the figures behind this report.
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