Paris is showing that it’s not to be outdone in the battle of the skyscrapers. And the developer, Russian company Hermitage, in addition, wants to double up for good measure. 

When assisting clients who are moving to a new office, Morgan Pryce recognises the need for the company to put its mark on the site. A regular requirement of a client is a space that has a style that represents who they are, and if they can’t find a building that can provide that, then the interior fit-out is where they make their mark instead. Nike did just this to spruce up its current offices which are based in Soho. 

Looking at total supply across the West End, last quarter’s supply jumped to a total of £4.3 million square feet of offices. Much of that was because of the construction of speculative schemes producing 590,000 square feet of vacant office space; however, this should be seen in context which shows that this figure amounts to only 4.7% of total stock that is vacant – and this is historically a very low percentage. 

Economic sentiment is improving and we have seen that shown by a number of indicators this quarter, particularly in the positive GDP result for Q1 and most recently in the latest PMI survey, which suggested that service activity is growing at its fastest pace for 2 years. These are some very positive signs. 

Where the trends of residential property lead, those of the commercial sector do not necessarily follow. However, the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has lately become the focus of attention from the business world, under pressure to bring commercial property under the same criminal sanctions as residential in respect of squatters. 

The City of London is finally gaining some confidence in the rental market as Reply, Total Jobs and International Power lead the way for medium size tenants acquiring office space in the City. Between the three of them, they have begun searching for a total of circa 100,000 sq. ft. within the square mile as they search to find their new Headquarters in London.

While the long, hot summer of this year has been one to remember, a car owner in Central London will remember it for another reason. The new building, known as the Walkie Talkie, and which is characterised by a large, curved expanse of glass panels, is being blamed for melting parts of a Jaguar parked nearby. 

Both the London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Communities secretary Eric Pickles have backed the plans which have been submitted for the redevelopment of the Ram Brewery in Wandsworth. The scheme was originally approved by the council’s planning committee in July.

There is set to be a change at every London Underground station in the future as a leaked document states that ticket offices are to be removed. Passengers will instead be required to use ticket machines or prepaid travel cards. 

By August 2009, offices in Marylebone had a vacancy rate of 10% along with no pre-let office buildings signed off in the first six months of that year. The sub market was dominated by betting and charity shops with the area needing serious development and regeneration. If we now fast-forward to the first six months of 2013, it is reported that vacancy rates have now fallen to 3.5% and there has been 85,000 sq. ft.