…of London grow lonely. Social media, TV, radio and print news is increasingly questioning the ability of London to maintain the current property conditions, which have evolved over the recent years, and even months. 

The Battersea power stations ongoing development unveiled their latest plans last week for the third phase of the scheme. This stage unveiled the development of 1,300 homes along with 350,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space at the power station. This part of the scheme was developed by architects Gehry Partners and Foster and Partners who will developing their first scheme within London. They have previously been involved in the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

When negotiating a lease for an office there are three main points that ingoing tenants tend to focus on. Firstly, the length of the term of the lease; how long are they going to be able to stay in the space and when will they have an option to break the lease. Secondly, the rent; how much is it going to be per annum which leads on to a rent-free period. How much of the lease they are able to negotiate where they have a rent fee allowance.

The large property developers, British Land are in the process of proposing a large multi-million pound design that propositions a tall 244m building, which is 20m taller than the new neighbouring Leadenhall Building, also deemed as the Cheesegrater in EC3, City. This is also being developed by British Land in conjunction with Oxford Properties – the design illustrates that it will take a tall, slender form. 

An announcement last week on behalf of the property companies Shaftesbury and Derwent London made public the sale and purchase of Jaeger House on Broadwick Street, London. It was reported that Shaftsbury has acquired the property from Derwent London for the sum of £30.75 million. 

London’s healthy property market is having its own positive effect on the industries related to real estate. Savills, the property services company, announced figures for last year that showed increased sales both at home in the UK and abroad.  Its global sales rose to almost £905 million, up 12%, with its pre-tax profits reaching £70 million – an increase of 35%.

Figures released last week have shown that the TMT sector (technology, media and telecommunications) snapped up almost 25% of the available office space in London’s Square Mile during 2013. 

The rise of the Middle East influence on UK investment has inevitably been tracked over recent years. This kind of investment has proved one of the most significant factors in the success of and boom in the London commercial property market in particular.  The property broker JLL has carried out a review of the Middle East investment transactions last year, specifically hotel, retail and commercial office property. 

Recent studies have started to claim the more relaxed open plan format along with the new hot-desking environment is starting to impact the workplace in a negative way and affecting the productivity. The studies claim an open plan format, removing the previous cellular format has meant employees have a lack of time to think, more interruption from colleagues, a lack of quiet places to work and too much noise. 

The 2014 budget has unfortunately not made much change to business rates this year round, although names such as Paul Easton who is head of rating at ES Group and commented that he is not disappointed that the chancellor had not mentioned the business rates profession today as they had not expected any significant in the 2014 budget anyway.