The Office Gossip

In our quest to discover the latest office gossip, the London Offices team has been out site visiting in Hackney, home of the über-trendy.

Here we discovered that just like other areas of east London, things are looking up for the Borough. The majority of large office buildings are located around historic Town Hall in Hackney's centre.

The council has invested some serious dosh in what have turned out to be rather attractive buildings.Although the council seems to occupy the majority of buildings in the over 5,000 sq ft category, there's a booming trade in small, quirky spaces. Artists, designers and photographers have flocked to this area in recent years to make the most of Hackney's low rents and relative proximity to the more expensive Hoxton and Shoreditch. We found numerous buildings offering small units on short-term leases. London Fields Studios and Northside Studios are just two such examples.

Those of you who subscribe to EGi will find more information on the delights of E8 online as London Offices has expanded its monitored-area to bring you the latest on our ever-growing capital.

It's all change again at 25 Churchill Place with another planning application being submitted by the Canary Wharf Group. Due to News International deciding to stay put in Wapping, Canary Wharf have again worked up a new design for this site with KPF.

The scheme features a 108 metre tall mid-rise tower, a reduction of 22 metres from the previous plans with the number of floors above ground level dropping from 24 to 19. It will contain 71,169 square metres of office space, a drop of almost 9,000 square metres.

Let's hope this compact glass-clad development will appeal to a potential occupier somewhere.

This week more than 250 people took part in a race to the top of the Gherkin to raise money for the NSPCC's Child's Voice Appeal. The 38-floor climb up 1,037 steps was certainly a challenge for most. But for those preferring not to break into a sweat there was another option... the Champagne Lift Pass. Basically, you take the lift and have a glass of bubbly whilst enjoying the spectacular views of London. And don't forget the entertainment of watching puffed-out, sweaty people staggering about!!

Judging by recent reports on London's standing as one of the world's leading cities for property investment, it would seem things are still looking up. PricewaterhouseCoopers has revealed London as the most popular location in Europe for investment in commercial property.

Foreign investors have been attracted by the weak pound and today's news that South Korea's National Pension Service is scouting for prime office property in the UK will only strengthen the sentiment that things are picking up. Jun Kwang-woo, chairman of South Korea's NPS, said UK property continued to be attractive and represented "a good buying opportunity".

The only worry is that the government will withdraw economic stimulus before the market has fully recovered. Let's hope the positive reports keep on coming!

There was a good turn out at the LOMA breakfast briefing yesterday morning and it was good to see both familiar and new faces attending.

CBRE was top of the table for 2009 taking a 23% market share.

For the full report, including information on take up, supply, asking rents and construction please click here: http://www.egi.co.uk/lomarketanalysis.htm 

For a brief summary and market overview there is a video hosted online: http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=712468&NavigationID=464 

Thank you to all that attended and we look forward to seeing you in April for the Q1 2010 briefing.

The UK has just exited a deep recession with a 0.1% growth in the economy in the last three months of 2009. Although growth is slight it could give the construction industry the push they need to begin developing the many stalled site across London. With a shortage of new grade A office stock due in 2011/12 perhaps developers should take the risk and start picking up tools again in 2010.