The City of London Corporation has clocked its busiest year for planning applications in a decade as developers race to deliver more premium office space in the Square Mile.

Fresh data from the Corporation shows 2025 delivered the highest volume of applications in ten years. Major schemes over 100,000 sq m were up 36% on 2024 suggesting growing investor confidence in tall, sustainable office buildings.

More than half a million square metres of new office floorspace was approved in 2025, the strongest annual total in a decade.

Around half of that is already on site, pushing the City’s construction pipeline to levels not seen since before the pandemic.

Flagship schemes such as 1 Undershaft are now rising, while 85 and 60 Gracechurch Street are due to break ground in early 2026 as developers move quickly to meet surging occupier demand.

Avison Young data shows overall City vacancy at 7.4% — but for top-tier Grade A towers the availability rate drops to between 1.9% and 2.6%. The Square Mile’s largest office building, 22 Bishopsgate, is now fully let.

2025 also marked major progress on the Local Plan — City Plan 2040 — which is in its final consultation stage and on track for adoption in the first half of next year.

Alongside it, the Corporation has adopted a full suite of sustainability guidance and is advancing procurement of a delivery partner for a low-cost, low-carbon heat network.

Retrofit schemes accounted for half of all applications received in 2025, supporting the City’s drive to hit net zero by 2040.

The Corporation also confirmed ten new pedestrian routes are being unlocked across Bishopsgate, Old Broad Street and Liverpool Street to ease footfall pressures and improve station links.

Tom Sleigh, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Planning & Transportation Committee, said: “This record-breaking year proves one thing: Britain’s Central Business District is booming.

“The Square Mile remains the nation’s engine room for investment growth, and the pace of demand is only accelerating.

“With 20 major office schemes, including eight new towers, now under construction and thousands of jobs being created, the City is once again showing the rest of the country how to plan for growth.”