Four take lion’s share of London fit-outs

Swanke Hayden Connell and MCM Architecture were equal first in the architects’ table with both firms enjoying a 17% share of large fit out projects.

Over the past year MCM’s clients took more than 500,000ft2 of office space, enabling it to catch up on Swanke Hayden Connell, which started the year in front.

Gensler and HOK each moved up a place in the rankings as Sheppard Robson slipped down the table.

Building Design Partnership (BDP) entered the ranking for the first time.

The London fit-out market is now highly consolidated, with the top six practices winning 82% of large projects.

Among fit-out contractors, ISG InteriorExterior retained the top spot despite a sharp increase in workload for Overbury, the firm in second place.

These two contractors account for 53% of large fit-out projects in central London.

Swanke and MCM tied for first among architects, each with 17% of the London market

Como remained in third place and Canary Wharf Contractors moved into fourth.

The report added that there were 5.9 million ft2 of “live” projects in central London where the fit-out contract had still to be appointed, a 68% increase since publication of the review earlier this year.

The project managers league was led by GTMS, which opened up a gap over its rivals by winning an 18% market share.

Second place Turner & Townsend gained a 15% share of the market, and the top 10 firms accounted for 34% of all office space in central London.

The tables were compiled by Metropolis Property Research, and are focused on the fit-out of new and refurbished grade A space between 2004 and 2007.
The tables do not take into account “re-stack work” (that is, fit-outs and refurbishments where the occupier remains in place) or work on vacant speculative office space.

The league tables were prepared for the London Property Forum’s Station Life conference, to be held at King’s Cross next week.