Good news London — the latest figures show the city's downtown office vacancy rate is no longer the worst in the country.

Instead, we're the second-worst.

And with more companies bringing employees back to the office, instead of remote work, the number of people in the core going for walks, grabbing lunch or staying for an afternoon pint is steadily climbing.

"Our numbers have been going up since COVID. We had 32,000 employees in the downtown in 2021 and as of 2024 we're back up to about 40,000," said Vicky Smith, the head of Downtown London, which advocates for businesses in the core.

"It's still lower than pre-COVID but we are trending in the right direction."

Before the pandemic, the downtown workforce was about 48,000 people, Smith said.

London's core has more vacant office space

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