As the market tightens and there is less stock available for tenants on the hunt for new office space, landlords are taking the opportunity to lock in tenants to longer leases at record high rental rates. The IPD UK Lease Events Review 2015 released a research publication which states that the average commercial lease has now reached 7.2 years. This is back to the high of the last market peak in 2007. 

There is a lot of excitement surrounding the completion of Crossrail in 2018/2019, not just because we will no longer be packed like sardines on the Central Line but because it will have a huge effect on the supply and demand of office space in London. As tenant representation agents we see every day how the lack of supply and high rents are having a detrimental effect on businesses; they simply cannot pay the rents being asked so are being forced out of London, extending leases or taking short term space.

The property market works in cycles – this is not news to anyone. As we climb higher and higher and regularity hitting new highs like the highest rents achieved and highest records of office take up achieved makes the question on everyone’s lips “when will reach the top?” 

China’s largest residential real estate developer Vanke, who is renowned for developing, managing and selling residential properties across more than 60 mainland Chinese cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai-Rim Region, is due to make its debut investment in Europe. Vanke has already expanded to the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore and hopes to secure a hold in Europe with its 20% stake in the £750 million ‘The Stage’ development in Shoreditch.

Paddington is a very desired located with a lack of Grade A space, as the area is full of developments occupiers eagerly await the influx in availability and gentrification of the area which will follow. When exiting East of the station the quality of office building is already in line with what occupiers are look for, just not enough to full the demand. 

With yields shrinking and value becoming harder to find, there seems to be a light leading investors towards the student property market in search of a more worthwhile investment. There are 160 universities in the UK with approximately 2.5 million students, 700 higher education colleges and currently an estimated 170,000 new foreign students coming to the UK every year and they need somewhere to live. Sounds like a no brainer!

The next 12-18 months of the London commercial property market is looking like the same story as the previous 12 months; a lack of office stock across Central London, which in turn is squeezing rental prices up across the Capital. Indeed, this is not just the case in Central London. Over the last year there has been a total of 6 million sq ft of office space converted into residential across England. This is double the previous record of 3.7 million sq ft converted office to residential back in the boom year of 2008.

In a world where you can buy anything online from your grocery shopping to a car, why not Commercial property? The concept of being able to buy commercial property online has many pro’s and con’s depending on the property but is still a great platform for vendors to move through the auctioning process.

The Malaysian Ringgit has never been strong, currently 6.39661 MYR to 1 GDP, but with fears of the currency further weakening the Malaysian government has told institutions to sell overseas assets and reinvest the capital in Malaysia in a bid to improve the economy and strengthen the currency. Last year Asian buyers would have snapped up these opportunities but they have been struggling recently due to a dramatic weakening of the Chinese Yen and stock exchange.

JP Morgan, an American multinational banking and financial services company, has put on hold the sale of a large portion of land in Canary wharf which it bought on a long lease hold interest from the Canary Wharf Group for £237 million back in 2008.