Renew & Refresh – the trend shaping London office strategy in 2026

In 2024, occupiers looked at how hybrid work affected their space needs. In 2025, they tried new approaches. Early 2026 has shown many are making final decisions, often choosing to stay and renegotiate their leases.

A clear trend is emerging – office regears, including renewals and restructures, are now central to the London market.

This change is happening because of limited supply, higher moving costs, and the challenges of relocating larger offices. For those who signed a lease during the return to office halo, terms may and incentives have shifted away to meet the growing demand and supply shortage. Weighing options with a full cost analysis will be key to finding your leverage and best option for continued growth.

What’s causing more businesses to choose regears?

1 | The financial rationale for staying put is shifting, particularly for larger occupiers.
A recent market update found that 25% of occupiers with requirements below 40,000 sq ft are likely to stay, while this figure rises to 46% for those needing over 100,000 sq ft. Relocating larger footprints is increasingly complex, costly, and carries a higher risk of not securing suitable space in time.

2 | Limited supply is putting more pressure on lease events. The same report indicated that 65% of occupiers with lease expiries through 2030 are expected to face limited space availability, further reinforcing the prominence of regears. Industry experts say that less Grade A space, earlier decisions, and more pre-letting are changing how occupiers act as demand for quality space grows.

3 | The market is moving to a ‘pre-let first’ approach, making other options less important. Recent research shows that 43% of new London office space is already pre-let, indicating that occupiers are committing earlier to secure preferred options, which reduces availability for later entrants.

4 | Lease expiry volumes are stacking up into 2030 – It’s estimated that over 50 million square feet of leases will expire between 2026 and 2030. This is shortening timelines and making many businesses plan earlier for whether to stay or move.

In practice, regears are about making the most of your building’s performance instead of just staying put.

This is where lease advisory becomes strategic. Staying gives you a chance to use your lease event to improve how your building works for you.

You can see this trend in the rise of space refresh and reconfiguration projects we’ve taken on year over year

Quick playbook for occupiers choosing to stay put

Here are the most common ‘stay and improve’ strategies we’re seeing in early 2026.

1 | Cost-saving exercises (find money without finding a new postcode)
Identify savings on rent, rates or service charges. The goal is to reduce leakage, tighten assumptions, and create budget certainty while the market is volatile.

2 | Rent reviews (reset to today’s reality)
Renegotiate terms to reflect current market values and the building’s competitive position. In a polarised market, evidence and positioning matter more than volume. This is particularly important depending on when your last review was completed, to ensure you’re prepared to leverage other opportunities where levels have increased.

3 | Lease renewals (stability with leverage)
Secure more favourable terms for long-term stability, using:
• break options
• incentives
• capex commitments
• flexibility mechanisms

This is also where you align lease structure with the business’s risk appetite.

4 | Lease renewals aligned to new working patterns. Same lease event, different lens: renegotiations that match how people actually use space now, not how they used it in 2019.
Start thinking along the lines of:
• rights to reconfigure
• agreed density assumptions
• shared amenity strategies
• landlord-delivered upgrades vs tenant capex

5 | Furniture and space reconfiguration (the “small moves, big lift” zone)
This is the practical layer that makes a regear feel like an upgrade:
• collaboration zones that actually get used
• quiet focus areas that aren’t afterthoughts
• phone booth strategy that matches meeting behaviour
• storage rationalisation and decluttering the floorplate

6 | Workplace strategy: stay vs go analysis
A proper stay vs go analysis is a decision model, not a vibe check:
• cost to stay vs cost to move
• risk of supply delay
• people/talent impacts
• brand and client experience
• ESG / building performance trajectory

7 | Portfolio strategy + market intel
For multi-site occupiers, regears become a portfolio tool:
• sequence lease events
• consolidate where it helps
• protect optionality where it matters
• anticipate supply pinch points before they bite

What to do now

If your lease expiry is within the next 24–36 months, the best time to start is already in your diary.

1. A good starting sequence:
2. 1. Market intel + supply scan (what actually exists for your size band)
3. 2. Stay vs go model (cost, risk, timing, people)
   1. 1. 1. 1. 3.Commercial negotiation (rent, incentives, capex, flexibility)
      1. 1. 1. 4. Workplace strategy (how the space should work)
         1. 1. 1. 5. Lease strategy (renewal, regear, re-stack, break timing)
               2. 6. Delivery layer (fit-out/furniture refresh and reconfiguration)

If you’re scaling weighing up options on your next office move, give our team a call to see what the process looks like and what your opportunities are.

Speak to our team about a review of your current lease and future plans.