An 11.7% stake in 20 Fenchurch Street, better known as ‘The Walkie Talkie’ building has been put up for sale by Morgan Stanley in the hope it will achieve an £150 million sale price, reflecting a yield of 3.1%. Over the last year, yields in central London have dropped dramatically low as the market peaked back towards the end of 2015.

It is not a secret that millions of square feet of commercial property all over London have been converted into residential. It’s happening everywhere, and there are countless properties both in what normally has been commercial or residential areas that are currently surrounded by intense banging of scaffolding being put up, or cranes blocking out light as more buildings get converted to residential.

The current South African economic outlook has many similarities with that of 1990’s Zimbabwe, where inequalities with the distribution of wealth caused national unrest, several industries to collapse and the Zimbabwe dollar to lose value.

With the revaluation of business rates coming into effect in 2017, there has been much discussion around the subject. However, there are more changes than the most obvious increase in the rates which most areas will be experiencing. In George Osborne’s budget announcement, we saw a number of changes which will benefit the smaller occupier. For example small business rates relief has moved from 50% to 100%, and will now apply to any property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less. Previously, this only applied to properties with a rateable value of £6,000 and less.

Google has been given the green light by planners for their occupation in the S2 office building at Argent’s King’s Cross Central scheme.

CBRE, the Green property giant, are in preliminary talks with Bilfinger to acquire GVA and the other property- related businesses under the German ownership. Talks are in the early stages and are being held in Mannheim, Germany the HQ of Bilfinger. At this stage no cost has been established, however Bilfinger GVA alone is thought to be worth up to £175 million; the final sum will be dependent on what other property related businesses are included in the deal.

In 2016 the British public will be asked to vote on whether the UK should leave the European Union; every analyst, professional and anyone with access to social media has been speculating as to the outcome and its impact. 

London’s office market has experience vast growth over the last few years, with rents rising rapidly over the last 18 months. A lack of supply paired with huge demand has meant rents in the capital have reached record levels; St James has seen a deal at £185 psf, whilst you can now find non-tower city space for £80 psf. Rents are expected to continue to slowly rise this year, before the supply slowly starts to take to the market in 2017 – there is potential for records to continue to be broken.

With the government implementing new energy standards, landlord will be needing to step up to the new bench mark or risk their property being illegal to let. From April 2018 the Government will be setting a standard that buildings must achieve a minimum of an ‘E’ rating to be able to be lawfully let.

It is not a secret that millions of square feet all over London have been converted into residential. It’s happening everywhere, where you both live and work will surely be surrounded by the endless banging of scaffolding being put up and cranes blocking out your morning light as more building get converted to residential. Why is this happening you ask? With the demand for residential property so high any landlord is making the jump over to maximise theirs properties value.