Anyone looking to locate their office in Westminster at the moment must ensure that they have deep pockets – even deeper than would have been needed in 2008. In 2012 Westminster office space prices increased to an extent that the average price exceeded those when, in real estate terms, London was booming. 

It was reported in The Times on 5th March that a Stradivarius violin worth £1.2 million – stolen two years ago from virtuoso violinist, Min-Jin Kym in Prêt A Manger, a London sandwich bar – may have been recovered. 

Reports from the most recent of the UK Annual Residential Index, which are published by the global real estate consultancy group IPD, have shown that commercial residential investment continues to run ahead of inflation. 

There is set to be in London a tug-of-war between residential and commercial property – at least in certain areas. The capital needs houses: the capital needs offices. Sometimes both at the same time, in the same place. The government plans to relax planning legislation in order that change of use planning permission will not be required for conversion from office to residential.

The district of Victoria is increasingly being seen as a popular office location due to the high level of development having taken place there over recent years, in particular, the increase in the number of smart high-rise office blocks. As Victoria has one the busiest stations in London – along with good underground services: District, Circle and Victoria lines – it is now an easily accessible part of London; hence offices in Victoria have become highly desirable. 

In property terms, fallout from the recession(s) of the recent years and present times has taken the form of a slow-down in house building, seen nationwide. The government has had no choice but to implement some incentives to help and encourage construction companies and developers to start building again. However, there remain long-term concerns with the level of house building in the UK: new developments are scarce in comparison to the demand.

After nearly two years of consultation and reflection the government is now on course to amend planning regulations by classifying the change of use from offices into residential as “permitted development” under the General Permitted Development Order. Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, recently announced in a written statement to Parliament that “new permitted development rights will allow change of use from B1(a) offices to C3 residential.

The last time London was crowned the world’s most expensive place to rent office space was back in 2008 when the market was at its peak and just before the collapse of the global financial services firm, Lehman Brothers.

The social and financial aspects of real estate are inextricably linked. The surge of overseas money into London’s residential market has had a dramatic impact. House prices have risen significantly, making the residential market an increasingly appealing investment and as a result many property developments have been driven further out of Central London. This has in turn attracted a large amount of global interest, pushing prices up further.

These days almost any newsworthy statistics seem to be bandied about in billions: Greek debt, National Health Service budget, the cost of new aircraft carriers and the like. But actually how much is a billion pounds? Can we imagine it? A million pounds stacked in £20 notes is 5.56 metres high, about the same as a London Routemaster bus. Therefore a billion pounds similarly stacked would be 5,650 metres high, i.e. 1,000 buses. And 83 billion pounds so stacked would be about 480 kilometres high.