March 2013

Rents for offices in London have had a tendency to rise dramatically as an increased number of foreign investors have hit the office market. This has resulted in rents reaching astonishing heights – recently around £120 per square foot for Mayfair or £80 per square foot in Knightsbridge. 

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.

Anyone looking to locate their office in Westminster at the moment must ensure that they have deep pockets – even deeper than would have been needed in 2008. In 2012 Westminster office space prices increased to an extent that the average price exceeded those when, in real estate terms, London...

It was reported in The Times on 5th March that a Stradivarius violin worth £1.2 million – stolen two years ago from virtuoso violinist, Min-Jin Kym in Prêt A Manger, a London sandwich bar – may have been recovered. 

Reports from the most recent of the UK Annual Residential Index, which are published by the global real estate consultancy group IPD, have shown that commercial residential investment continues to run ahead of inflation. 

There is set to be in London a tug-of-war between residential and commercial property – at least in certain areas. The capital needs houses: the capital needs offices. Sometimes both at the same time, in the same place. The government plans to relax planning legislation in order that change of...

The district of Victoria is increasingly being seen as a popular office location due to the high level of development having taken place there over recent years, in particular, the increase in the number of smart high-rise office blocks. As Victoria has one the busiest stations in London – along...

In property terms, fallout from the recession(s) of the recent years and present times has taken the form of a slow-down in house building, seen nationwide. The government has had no choice but to implement some incentives to help and encourage construction companies and developers to start building again. However,...

After nearly two years of consultation and reflection the government is now on course to amend planning regulations by classifying the change of use from offices into residential as "permitted development" under the General Permitted Development Order. Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, recently announced in a written statement to Parliament that...

The last time London was crowned the world’s most expensive place to rent office space was back in 2008 when the market was at its peak and just before the collapse of the global financial services firm, Lehman Brothers.