The districts contains almost 40 million square foot of office space, and so the Greater London Authority (GLS), together with various other London boroughs, has applied for an exemption in relation to this office stock. In other words, if the exemptions are granted, and a property owner wished to convert from commercial to residential, they would still need to adhere to the current procedure, allowing each individual borough to decide whether each individual proposal will succeed on its own merits, and to enable the councils to monitor the balance – or otherwise – of commercial and residential property in its area. 

The areas relevant to the exemption application not only include the West End and certain inner London boroughs, but also some outer boroughs as well.  Croydon is one such borough that wishes to protect its commercial stock, and if it’s successful this may increase the capital’s protected stock by another 3%. 

Sally Brough, Associate Director at Morgan Pryce, comments: “The nature of office space is different from that of industrial; it is easily converted and it provides vital jobs to specific areas. A change to the demographic of office and residential space could impact upon an area in relation to the facilities which currently serve the local businesses and in relation to a potential lack of facilities if there were a swift change to residential occupation.”

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.