Elizabeth Line's development boom cools in London, but its rental premium keeps climbing, new Avison Young Research reveals

Offices within 500 metres of Elizabeth Line stations commanded rents up to 52% higher than the rest of London in 2026, although developers pull back from connectivity-led building near the line

LONDON – 26 September 2026 – New research from global commercial real estate advisor Avison Young reveals that the Elizabeth Line continues to command a substantial and growing rental premium for offices near its stations, even as its power to drive new development is slowing sharply four years after the line opened.

The analysis finds that average prime London office rents within 500 metres of Elizabeth Line stations have pulled further ahead of the rest of the London market with 25% growth between 2019 and 2024 being almost double the 13% experienced beyond the 500-metre radius. That gap widened even more markedly in 2026 with rents near stations now up 52% since 2019, some two and a half times the 22% seen elsewhere in the capital.

The Elizabeth Line rental premium for offices within 500 metres of the busiest transport hubs in the sub markets along the route reached roughly £28 per square foot in the first half of 2026, up from £11.50 per square foot in 2024.

Prime rents have followed a similar path across the wider submarkets served by the line. Every Elizabeth Line submarket has recorded prime rental growth since 2019, with Bond Street recording the significantly highest growth at 63%, resulting from a large number of successful new Grade A developments in the area post 2020, illustrating the flight-to-quality trend.

With Liverpool Street sitting in second place at 36%, of all the locations in central London, Tottenham Court Road, midway between the Bond Street and Liverpool Street, recorded the smallest growth at just 16%.

Overall, Stratford, still working through the legacy of development that followed the 2012 Olympics, has seen the weakest growth of the group across all locations, suffering high vacancy levels and low demand, representing further evidence of the enduring appeal of a central location in the capital.

Commenting on the research findings, James Shirt, Senior Analyst, UK Office Market Intelligence, Avison Young, said:
“Developers piled into locations around the Elizabeth Line ahead of its opening, and the market rewarded that bet handsomely in rental terms. Four years on, occupiers are still paying up for space near the line, and that premium is if anything accelerating. However, the development pipeline tells a different story – the building boom that connectivity triggered has largely played out, and the market has settled back closer to its long-run average.”

George Roberts, UK & Ireland President, Avison Young, commented:
“London is a key growth market for our business and our data-led approach in understanding the market trends and dynamics of the city plays a significant role in the advice we’re able to give our clients across our wide range of service-lines. It’s a large and complex city which is constantly evolving so by combining our local knowledge and expertise with intelligence and expertise across our global platform, we can help clients identify and execute future opportunities.”

Development activity has normalised after an early surge

In the years before the Elizabeth Line's Q2 2022 launch, the area within 500 metres of its stations – despite representing only around 10% of London's total office market by area – accounted for more than half of all office completions in the capital in some periods between 2020 and 2022, as developers rushed to capitalise on the new connectivity. Completions in square footage terms peaked in 2020 and had fallen by roughly 50% by 2022, with development levels near and away from the line converging onto similar trends thereafter.

That period produced some of London's most significant recent office schemes, including the 209,000-square-foot, pre-let Soho Place at Tottenham Court Road and 200,000 square feet of office space at Farringdon station, developed by Helical. In total, around 12 million square feet of office space was completed within 500 metres of Elizabeth Line stations between 2019 and 2023, representing 37% of all office completions across London over that period.

Since 2023, that share has fallen back to 28% of London completions – in line with the decadal average, and a signal that developers may be moving away from strategies built purely around proximity to the line, even though the area still outperforms its 10% share of the market.

Rents kept rising even as demand for space around the line softened

Rental growth in Elizabeth Line locations accelerated from 2019 in anticipation of the 2022 opening, rising 14% compared with 8% elsewhere and creating a rental premium of more than £5 per square foot by 2022, which climbed to a peak of £10 per square foot by 2024. Notably, rents continued to rise near the line even during a period when overall office demand nearby was declining – evidence, Avison Young says, that occupiers were placing a distinct premium on connectivity itself.

While the premium on average achieved rents within 500 metres of stations narrowed slightly in 2025, prime rents in submarkets served by the Elizabeth Line have continued to face upward pressure this year, driven by low vacancy and strong demand for best-in-class space.