The Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest financial institution, may have come to the end of its search for a new City of London head office, entering into negotiations for space within 100 Bishopsgate tower. 

The City of London has seen a flurry of lettings at the new development, 6 Bevis Marks. The striking building, designed by Fletcher Priest, offers 160,000 sq. ft. of high end office space, in the heart of the City. The space is split over 16 floors, with those on the higher floors enjoying private terraces and a roof garden – an attractive proposition for the multitude of tenants who have taken space in the building. 

London has a mini crisis on its hands. The palace of Westminster, which includes London’s landmark buildings, is in a state of deterioration. Estimates for repairs have ranged from a staggering £3.5 billion to £7.5 billion – a cost of sixteen times more than it took to build the Shard. This monumental cost has been derided from many angles, however the resounding belief amongst the majority of professionals, in all industries, must be that Westminster must be restored; it is the icon of the Capital.

There are many questions surrounding China’s dramatic stock market collapse, Chinese shares plunged over the last months and have fallen almost a third in value since the June 12th high.  The loss in the value of Chinese companies is estimated to be circa $3 trillion, nearly 20 times the estimated loss of ‘Grexit’ which has been plaguing our headlines for the last few months. 

The commercial property industry has seen an increasing number of regulations in relation to energy performance due to The UK’s government’s commitment to reduce the high level of carbon emissions. As 50% of carbon emissions made in the UK is from construction and operation of buildings it has been an area heavily looked into for improvements.

London’s most iconic building, The Shard, has seen an influx of new deals in the last few days. The Shard, the tallest building in Europe, standing at over 306m, is home to a variety of different industries showing the strength of the attraction of one of the World’s most recognisable buildings. 

The latest research from CBRE has established that the amount of commercial property space under offer in Central London is at a level not seen since the end of 2000. 

There has been much discussion over the last 6 months as to whether the UK business rates system is out of date. In the Morgan Pryce office we quickly came to the conclusion the UK rating system was out of date and was having a strong negative impact on businesses, especially in London. Ollie Salter a surveyor at Morgan Pryce thinks, “Any system that was created in the 16th century which has remained relatively unchanged for 600 years clearly needs to be updated.

Ares Management, a US fund manager based in Los Angeles has entered an exclusivity period to purchase a European office portfolio from the German fund manager IVG Immobilien. The German fund manager currently has around €11 billion (£7.8 billion) of assets under management. Ares has 15 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia, and has been in business since 1997.

Souring office rents are forcing tenants to look more creatively at their office space needs according to Carter Jonas’ quarterly review of the market. With costs rising in nine London submarkets and likely to do so until at least 2017,many sectors are looking to reduce their footprint in order to save on rental costs.