IN Brief:
- The City of London Corporation says 2025 approvals topped 500,000 sq m of office space.
- Major schemes underway or starting imminently include 1 Undershaft and the Gracechurch Street projects.
- Tight new-build vacancy is driving a development pipeline focused on Grade A, lower-carbon offices.
The City of London Corporation has published updated skyline imagery showing the Square Mile’s tall-building cluster as it could look in around six years, as a wave of consented towers and major refurbishments moves through construction. The visualisation, created by Didier Madoc-Jones of GMJ, is built from schemes already on site or holding planning permission.
The Corporation says more than half a million square metres of office space was granted planning permission in 2025 — a record annual total it equates to more than ten “Gherkin”-sized buildings. Around half of that floor area is already under construction, with a further pipeline expected to start as remaining approvals convert into contracts.
The active workload is concentrated in the eastern cluster, where several large commercial schemes are either underway or close to mobilisation. The Corporation cites 1 Undershaft as already in progress, while 85 and 60 Gracechurch Street are expected to start imminently, with the Gracechurch pair alone contributing more than 200,000 sq m of commercial space.
The Corporation also points to a sharp start to 2026 in planning decision throughput, with an 84% increase in planning applications decided in January compared with the same month last year. In its view, that volume reflects both developer appetite and an ongoing occupier requirement for newer, higher-specification buildings.
Market indicators cited alongside the skyline release underline how little slack remains in the newest stock. The Corporation references JLL data indicating City Core vacancy at 4.4% in Q4, while new-build vacancy stood at 0.1% in the same period. It also notes 22 Bishopsgate is fully occupied, with rental levels for prime space pushing upwards as occupiers compete for the highest-performing buildings.
Tom Sleigh, chairman of the Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, said: “Commercial development in the Square Mile is all systems go.” The Corporation has positioned the consented pipeline as an investable construction programme over the remainder of the decade, with further major decisions expected as more schemes move through planning and into delivery.
