The Isle of Dogs is the latest in locations to jump on the bandwagon of converting office blocks to residential accommodation, providing an increase in value to landlord. The Isle of Dogs is to see a new wave of residential towers to come available in the next 5 years, totalling a value of up to £750m.
Residential developers, Berkeley Group bought a site at the South Quaza Plaza site earlier this year in April and have hired the architects Foster & Partners to develop waterside towers. The site, which was previously owned by a Jersey-registered trust currently encompasses a 148,541 sq. ft. office building which is currently being let to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Financial Ombudson Service will be vacating the premises in November 2015 and planning application for the residential scheme should be submitted early next year.
A recent deal between Telford Homes and Orca Finance has seen contracts exchanged for a £13m site at 7 Limeharbour that currently houses an office block of 7 floors. The residential developer plans to seek planning permission to convert this site into a 25-storey high residential tower to provide 200 units and 250,000 sq. ft. of residential space. The scheme is thought to be worth £150m once complete. Another site to be hit by the conversion is 30 March Wall, home to 1990’s office building and the owner, Orca Finance is in the process of seeking planning permission to convert the site to provide 256,000 sq. ft. of residential space with a projected value of £200m.
As said by Christina Weguelin of Morgan Pryce “The area surrounding South Quay in the Isle of Dogs was once traditionally home to large, low-medium rise office buildings but now with the arrival of crossrail in 2018 there has been a sudden surge of residential development in this area to adhere to the demand for this type of development,. The conversion of these sites from offices to residential will add to the strain of providing office space in London.”
Morgan Pryce is a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.
