The technology, media and telecoms sector, TMT for short, has been noticeable in its take-up of office space in London. 

Canary Wharf for many years was thought of as a desolate, high rise, tumbleweed strewn office submarket where rents are low and the morale of workers even lower. As rents soared in central London and vacancy rates were becoming unhealthily low, you could still find plenty of space for a mere £20psf office space in Canary Wharf. It has long been thought amongst central London agents the Docklands and Canary Wharf area has potential but is lacking the life, and facilities of central London. 

Research by Colliers International shows that tech and creative businesses are struggling to find appropriate office space in London.   This is resulting in an increase in rents and, in some ways, pushing these sectors to look creatively at the space they need. 

R22 is a gas used in Air-conditioning and other appliance which was banned in 2014 from all new AC equipment, due to its detrimental effects on the Ozone layer. From 2015, it is illegal to maintain existing AC equipment which used R22 gas. What this means for tenants is when buying into a 5 year lease (which is the industry standard in this market) you must take into consideration who will be responsible for replacing the AC units if they break. 

Research by DTZ in the form of the annual ‘Global Office Thermometer’ has shown that occupiers globally are feeling the effects of an overall lowering in office costs. There has been an average fall in costs per workstation worldwide, by 4.4% in 2014.   The fastest decline measured almost twice that in South Asia, with a reduction in costs of 8.3%, reflecting a slowdown in economic growth in the region and depreciation of local currencies against the US dollar. 

The latest report from CBRE indicates that the first quarter of this year has been strong in terms of take-up for office space in central London.  The figures show the highest level of first-quarter office space take-up for five years, amounting to 3.1 million square feet being accounted for in the first three months of 2015.

39 Victoria Street is a prime office block located a few minutes’ walk to St James’s Park underground station and the House of Parliament and is soon to be the residence of our MPs. The building contains 88,500 sq. ft. of office space over nine storeys and some retail space on the ground floor. 

DTZ’s latest research shows that the West End is yet again at the top of the list when it comes to the most expensive office space property. 

West One, the shopping centre situation above the Bond Street Tube station, is on the market for £240 million.  The site, on Oxford Street, amounts to around 0.75 acres, and has over 47,000 square feet of retail space, with an annual footfall of 18 million visitors. 

A recent report by DTZ shows indications that take-up for offices in the City is 64% higher than at this time last year.  In terms of figures, this amounts to around 800,000 square feet, comprising in part Deloitte’s acquisition of 1 New Street Square (260,000 square feet), which is added to the 256,000 square feet of space that Deloitte already occupies at 3 New Street Square.