Best areas to open office-based business in London
33 London local authorities ranked by the Gera Business Location Score — real rent, wages, rates and market density.
Where is the best place to open an office-based business in London?
In London, the best area to open an office-based business is Bexley, with a Gera Business Location Score of 61.1/100: premises at £105/m²/yr and local median pay £27,441. Westminster ranks lowest of 33 London authorities at 12.6/100. From 2025 UK government open data; re-dated annually.
Gera Business Location Score
Top London area for office-based business: Bexley.
How this is calculatedLondon ranked for office-based business
| # | Local authority | GBLS | Rent (£/m²/yr) | Local pay | Rates / 100 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bexley | 61.1/100 | £105 | £27,441 | £4,536 |
| 2 | Redbridge | 57.8/100 | £144 | £28,125 | £6,221 |
| 3 | Haringey | 57/100 | £159 | £27,716 | £6,869 |
| 4 | Waltham Forest | 56.9/100 | £150 | £28,880 | £6,480 |
| 5 | Barking and Dagenham | 56.4/100 | £131 | £32,433 | £5,659 |
| 6 | Greenwich | 56.2/100 | £146 | £30,787 | £6,307 |
| 7 | Enfield | 56/100 | £147 | £31,252 | £6,350 |
| 8 | Harrow | 55.5/100 | £150 | £32,208 | £6,480 |
| 9 | Havering | 55.3/100 | £149 | £31,874 | £6,437 |
| 10 | Lewisham | 54.4/100 | £141 | £34,965 | £6,091 |
| 11 | Bromley | 54.1/100 | £157 | £33,520 | £6,782 |
| 12 | Barnet | 53.8/100 | £181 | £30,926 | £7,819 |
| 13 | Sutton | 53.3/100 | £155 | £35,113 | £6,696 |
| 14 | Brent | 52.8/100 | £180 | £32,335 | £7,776 |
| 15 | Croydon | 51.3/100 | £181 | £34,987 | £7,819 |
| 16 | Ealing | 51/100 | £195 | £33,592 | £8,424 |
| 17 | Kingston upon Thames | 49.8/100 | £192 | £36,898 | £8,294 |
| 18 | Merton | 48.3/100 | £236 | £32,983 | £10,195 |
| 19 | Hillingdon | 46.8/100 | £219 | £37,941 | £9,461 |
| 20 | Newham | 46.2/100 | £217 | £39,117 | £9,374 |
| 21 | Richmond upon Thames | 45.4/100 | £266 | £35,263 | £11,491 |
| 22 | Wandsworth | 43.4/100 | £269 | £37,534 | £11,621 |
| 23 | City of London | 42.5/100 | £461 | £67,064 | £19,915 |
| 24 | Hounslow | 41.5/100 | £284 | £38,422 | £12,269 |
| 25 | Lambeth | 39/100 | £294 | £42,039 | £12,701 |
| 26 | Hackney | 37.1/100 | £358 | £37,736 | £15,466 |
| 27 | Islington | 31.1/100 | £357 | £49,624 | £15,422 |
| 28 | Tower Hamlets | 31.1/100 | £277 | £59,974 | £11,966 |
| 29 | Hammersmith and Fulham | 30.7/100 | £392 | £44,042 | £16,934 |
| 30 | Kensington and Chelsea | 30.3/100 | £439 | £38,541 | £18,965 |
| 31 | Southwark | 29/100 | £391 | £47,136 | £16,891 |
| 32 | Camden | 24.3/100 | £471 | £48,822 | £20,347 |
| 33 | Westminster | 12.6/100 | £621 | £49,973 | £26,827 |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cheapest area for office-based business premises in London?
- The lowest VOA rateable value for this property type in London is £105/m²/yr in Bexley. On the combined Gera Business Location Score, which also weighs wages and demand, Bexley ranks #1.
- How much are business rates for office-based business in Bexley?
- For a 100 m² unit in Bexley, business rates are roughly £4,536/yr at the 2026-27 small-business multiplier (43.2p), on top of about £10,500/yr rent — before Small Business Rate Relief.
Opening an office-based business in London?
Set up your UK GDPR and EU AI Act compliance from day one with a fixed-scope GeraCompliance sprint.
Contains public sector information published by Valuation Office Agency and Office for National Statistics and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: VOA Business Floorspace + ONS Business Counts + ONS ASHE (work geography) + ONS population estimates (2025 (VOA 31 March 2025; ASHE 2025 provisional; Business Counts 2025; population mid-2024), published December 2025).