Central London is a natural choice for establishing an office due to excellent transport links, a wide range of amenities and talent pool, but how do you choose the right location, not just to serve the needs of existing staff but to attract talent in the future.

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Location choice can be heavily influenced by an individual (and the convenience of their commute), but many businesses recognise that this can be a mistake and the decision should be a more considered and data driven approach.

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Here are some factors to consider when picking the right location in London:

1.      Accessibility

How easy is it for employees, clients, and partners to access the office and how resilient is the location it if there is a problem with the transport network?  Proximity to more than one underground line and a central overground station makes the location more resilient to issues that may arise.

London’s vast underground network means that most Zone 1 locations are well-connected, but some are more resilient than others. The introduction of The Elizabeth Line has meant that locations such as Liverpool Street, Farringdon, Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street and Paddington allow swift transport west and east with the added benefit of direct access to Heathrow which can be an important consideration.

Our location analytics technology allows clients to compare travel times for employees. By utilising employee postcode data, we can benchmark average travel times to different locations (e.g. percentage of staff within say 60, 90 or 120 minutes of a certain location, using preferred transport mode), varying assumptions such as time of travel (peak and off peak) and mode of transport (e.g. by car or public transport).

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2.      Cost

When making a long-term lease commitment, it is important to consider not only the current rent, but also the rental trend.  Rents can and do sometimes rise quickly in areas, usually because of new transport links and amenities. Putting roots down in an area only to find that rents become too high and if rents rise that is also likely to have a bearing on future business rates costs too.  For example, areas such as Kings Cross and Farringdon were once seen as emerging areas with competitive rents but have seen substantial rental growth in recent years.

Our rental guide can be provided upon request, where lower cost locations can be found but the more expensive locations demand a premium for a reason and understanding these locations, your employees, and the talent you want to attract will be the factors influencing choice.

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3.      Amenities

A location that is close to shops, restaurants, cafes, street food markets, night life and other amenities is an important consideration. Locations that entice people to come to the office and allow people to socialise can make a big difference in creating a sense of community amongst employees. Employees may want the opportunity to socialise with each other outside of work, which can lead to better working relationships and a stronger sense of team spirit.

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4.     Brand and wellbeing

Addresses can produce a subconscious bias whether you like it or not and you should use this to your advantage and a part of building your brand identity.  This is of course a mix of ingredients, from the area, surrounding tenants, quality of building and local amenities.

The character and architectural identity of the area should be aligned with the ethos of the business. Is your business akin to a shiny skyscraper in The City or a converted warehouse on The Southbank?

Safety should also be a consideration, whilst crime can unfortunately happen anywhere, some locations are more susceptible than others.  It’s worth visiting shortlisted locations at different times of the day and asking yourself if you would be comfortable with employees leaving the office on their own when it’s getting dark outside.

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5.      Proximity to clients and partners

This might be important if your team has regular in-person meetings either in your office, their office or a nearby café for example. Traditional clusters include tech firms in Shoreditch, finance in the City Core and media in Soho, but new clusters emerge so it’s important to look at new trends as well as the established ones.

In summary, there are often lots of suitable locations in London to choose for your business, but the choice should be considered on several factors, taking the business needs and objectives into account rather than the needs of an individual. Having a clear, data driven decision on location is the foundation to getting your office move right.

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