Offices in the UK are selling for almost a fifth less than what their owners were hoping they would fetch, the biggest discount since the global financial crisis 15 years ago.

In a sign of how tepid demand is, especially for older and less eco-friendly blocks, buyers of offices this year have on average paid 18 per cent less than the asking price, data from CoStar, the property analytics group, shows.

Not since 2009, when the global property market was in meltdown, has the shortfall been so high.

There was a time, when the office market was in its pomp about ten years ago, that buyers would pay over the asking price. As recently as 2019, landlords were more often than not at least getting the price they asked for.

140 Leadenhall Street, a nine-storey office in the shadow of the Cheesegrater building in the City of London, was put up for sale for about £30 million but is thought to have sold in June for closer to £20 million.

Oxfam House in Oxford, the charity’s British headquarters, sold for £37.1 million in the spring, having come to market with a reported asking price of £60 million. In Leeds, 6-7 Park Row was on the market for two years before selling for just over £8 million last month, having had an initial asking price of about £20 million.

The office market has been slow for a couple of years, as rapid interest rate rises have both pushed up the cost of financing and dragged valuations lower. There also remains uncertainty as to the future of the office in the post-pandemic world of hybrid working.

Although demand from businesses for “best-in-class” offices — modern green buildings with state-of-the-art amenities and ample leisure space — is getting stronger, finding tenants for so-called secondary offices is getting ever harder.

CoStar estimates that 8.3 per cent of all office space in the UK is empty — the most for 11 years — with the majority of that in older buildings on the outskirts of towns and cities.

Agents think some landlords are prepared to let their buildings go on the cheap because they cannot afford the refurbishment needed to bring those offices up to the standard that tenants are increasingly demanding.

Similarly, opportunistic buyers looking to improve, or “flip”, secondary offices need to drive a hard bargain to make the numbers stack up for their refurbishment projects, especially if they are outside London.

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The cost of financing has fallen back and valuations are stabilising, but it remains a slow market and even “grade A” offices are proving tough to sell.

Derwent, the London office owner, marketed a building on Whitfield Street, near Euston, for £120 million this year but that sale has since been pulled. Paul Williams, chief executive at Derwent, said the offers made were “reasonable” but were not as high as he had been looking for.

“[The market] has been subdued — obviously the cost of debt has been quite high,” he said. “It was good to see the first cut [to interest rates] last week and it looks like more cuts are coming. We’re seeing a few more assets put on to the market.”