Ahead of the British Council for Offices Annual Conference taking place in Edinburgh and Glasgow over 16th and 17th June, it is worth pausing to consider the state of the office market north of the border here in Glasgow. We have a city full of empty office buildings, and yet there is barely a square foot of Category A office space to lease!  

The BCO’s recent focus on embodied carbon, refurbishment and the next generation of workplace makes this a particularly timely conversation – and one in which Scotland has a lot to say as well as a lot to learn. 

The headline numbers are familiar. Glasgow’s office vacancy rate is among the highest in the UK, with whole floors – and sometimes whole building – sitting empty above ground level. Walk along West George Street, St Vincent Street or Bothwell Street and ‘To Let’ signs are everywhere. However, Scotland’s retrofit market is tighter than it looks, and the space tenants actually want is in genuine short supply. 

In Glasgow, Savills Q1 2026 Report notes the city’s Grade A vacancy rate at 2.5%, with Prime vacancy at 1.1%. Occupiers, particularly professional services, technology and finance firms driving demand, want Grade A, energy efficient offices with flexible floorspace and modern amenities, meeting modern ESG expectations. What Glasgow has in abundance is older, tired stock that does not perform to these standards, at least not without significant intervention. Tightening minimum energy efficiency standards, combined with corporate net zero commitments, mean that secondary stock is sliding towards obsolescence faster than the market can refurbish it. There are currently no new offices being built in the city centre, and the same is true in most of our Scottish cities. Ryden’s Scottish Property Review (March 2026) states however that the shortage of Grade A space in Glasgow in particular, is forcing rental growth up, which may ultimately trigger a new wave of speculative development or major refurbishments to satisfy the market. 

Edinburgh, where many BCO delegates will be gathering, presents a different but related picture. The capital has historically run a tighter market, with lower vacancy, stronger prime rents and continued upward pressure from financial services, government and tech. Its challenge is outright scarcity rather than the mismatch we see in Glasgow, but the pressures are very familiar. There is no meaningful new build pipeline, retrofit activity is similarly slow, and the same VAT distortion, supply chain and skills constraints apply just as strongly on the east coast.  

Given the lack of Cat A office space, you might expect a frenzy of retrofit and repurposing activity. However, activity has slowed markedly. Construction cost inflation, higher financing costs, and a punishing 20% VAT bill on refurbishment, versus 0% on new build, have made the numbers very difficult to stack up. On top of that, Scotland faces supply chain issues, particularly for the specialist trades, materials, and the skilled labour retrofit projects depend on. 

Yet retrofit remains the most credible answer. It is faster than building new on most city centre sites, where consents and demolition alone can lead to significant delay. It is better for the environment, significantly reduces embodied carbon, and protects the character that makes our city centres distinctive places that people want to work in. 

What is needed now is policy that matches the rhetoric. NPF4 (adopted Feb 2023) provides policy support for the reuse of existing buildings and retrofit measures to minimise embodied carbon, with demolition positioned as the least preferred option, a stance that we have previously highlighted as the clearest articulation yet of a ‘retrofit first’ approach in Scotland. The recently unveiled draft of the City Development Plan 2 reinforces this through policies encouraging reuse of underused buildings, particularly in the city centre, alongside strong heritage and conservation area protections.    

On a UK national level, equalising VAT between new build and retrofit would be transformative overnight, though that decision rests with the UK government, not Scotland. Reintroducing something like the Business Premises Renovation Allowance would help with viability. A serious, joined-up conversation about skills, apprenticeships, supply chains and streamlining the planning, would also give investors the confidence to commit. The BCO conference is the right moment to be making this case. We need political and economic support to turn the supply taps back on!