This week saw a decision by Tower Hamlets council to give the go ahead to a new development at Canary Wharf – one that will include residential as well as office, retail, hotel and restaurant space. Canary Wharf group purchased the land in 2012 for £60.4 million.

Since the recession, new developments have been few and far between. The limited new supply will only really start to affect the market in a year or two’s time once the developments are completed. This lack of supply is accentuated by a huge demand for office space in both the West End and City which in turn is pushing up rental prices. A perfect example of this in St.

Morgan Pryce deal with a many companies who are moving into taking a lease for the first time. Often they have come out of a serviced office where they have had one monthly cost which encompasses all the costs of occupying office.

Confirmation of earlier rumours has arisen in respect of Google Venture’s opening of a London branch, by way of a blog post on the company’s website. 

Mayfair has been for a while the home to the most expensive real estate in London and arguably the world. There are not many companies which can afford to occupy space in Mayfair and the ones that do tend to be there because of the prestigious address and what that conveys to their clients. The typical occupiers are Hedge Funds, Wealth Managers or the Oil and Gas industry. 

Predictions arising from research carried out by CBRE indicate that changes in legislation on the other side of the world could have a real impact on the commercial property markets in Europe and the USA. 

The Coca-Cola company has used an office move as an excuse to entirely redesign its workplace interiors.  Having been based for the last 15 years in Hammersmith, Coca-Cola has now relocated to Wimpole Street in central London. The new office space, which is housed in a building dating from the 1920s, appears as part workspace and part funky museum dedicated to the unique brand. 

London’s Crossrail, due to open in 2018/2019, is the largest infrastructure project Europe has ever seen. It will increase capacity and connectivity which in turn will encourage regeneration and new development in the areas surrounding the 40 stations it passes through (with 10 new stations being built). It connects also Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west and Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the East.

5 years ago, Shoreditch only existed to the very edgy, cool start up tech firms who wanted to be positioned outside the norm of Soho and the surrounding areas. Shoreditch was very much a fringe market where you could acquire Warehouse styled office buildings for next to nothing. 5 years later and the warehouse buildings are so in demand that they are now demanding mid £40 per sq. ft. and it is now the new tech hub of the Capital.

The SE1 office leasing market continues to tighten as occupiers struggle to find suitable space in the area. Many are being priced out as rents continue to grow as supply continues to shrink. Southwark, London Bridge and the surrounding areas have become increasingly popular for a number of reasons; firstly the location, the area is extremely well connected with London Bridge, Charing Cross and Waterloo all in close walking distance. This means workers from all over the south east can easily transport to work.