Central London office take-up had a positive start to 2012 despite figures being below that of December. Nevertheless, 840,000 sq ft (78,000 m2) changed hands in January, an increase of 38% on the same time last year, according to research by global property adviser CBRE.

The market with the largest increase was Docklands where take-up jumped from 9,300 sq ft to 90,200 sq ft, boosted by the 74,700 sq ft deal by the Financial Ombudsman Service, CBRE said.

Office availability in central London rose marginally in January and now stands at 16.1 million sq ft as more secondhand space came back onto the market. This represents an availability rate of 5.3%.

'After a particularly strong end to 2011, take-up in January 2012 was significantly higher than at the same point a year ago. Space under offer has fallen over the past few months, but requirements are still at a healthy level and we remain optimistic that this will translate into activity in the market,' Emma Crawford, CBRE’s executive director, said in a statement.