The City of London Corporation has revealed construction work is revving up across the Square Mile as investors start returning to the Capital’s financial centre.

A new heat map of construction sites show over 9m sq ft of floorspace being delivered over the next few years, equivalent to the floorspace of around 10 ‘Cheesegrater’ buildings, or 18 ‘Gherkins’.

The Corporation saw a 25% hike last year in planning applications and similar increase in the number of approvals, compared to 2022.

Building activity is being driven by a surge in big ‘cut and carve’ retrofit projects as owners upgrade Grade B offices to Grade A.

Around 5.4m sq ft represents a net uplift in total space for the Square Mile,

The map has been prepared for next month’s MIPIM 2024, real estate conference, to demonstrate to the world’s developers and investors, that London is back as the best place to build and invest.