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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!

Deals are now due for the Q4 2009 London Office Market Analysis report.

In order for your agency to receive the credit deserved and the LO team to update your disposals and acquisitions in time please submit any disposals or acquisitions your agency has completed in Q4 2009 ASAP to andrew.heard@egi.co.uk.

The report will be finalised in the first week of January and the breakfast briefing will be taking place on Thursday 28th January with the report available online and in the EG on Saturday 30th January.

The property arm of Spanish insurer Mutua Madrileña has pulled out of a deal to purchase Milton Gate.

The European stock markets took a hit yesterday after fears surrounding Dubai's debt problems spread. The FTSE 100 index suffered its worst one-day hit since March falling by 3.2% and banking shares took a battering as investors worried about their exposure to the debt-laden emirate, £48 billion in debt to be precise. 

Almost £14billion was wiped off the value of Britain's biggest banks yesterday as the financial crisis in Dubai sent shockwaves around the world. Investors were further spooked by reports Dubai's neighbour Abu Dhabi will not step in to help this time round. Speculation that European banks are exposed to roughly half of Dubai World's debts caused their shares to collapse.

But what will these debt fears mean for London property?

Property investors and brokers are talking up the prospect that the sale of financial investment firm Istithmar's international property, could raise hundreds of millions of pounds.

Dubai World's investment arm has investments in Adelphi on the Strand and the Grand Buildings in Trafalgar Square, in London.

Istithmar sold two developments in the West End last month to Great Portland Estates for much less than it paid for them two years ago.

 
It is thought that it will retain a share of the profits in the buildings in Regent Street and near Oxford Street.

 
King Sturge said prime international real estate was more likely to raise cash quickly than domestic assets and there would be a "feeding frenzy" for some of the buildings in the West End.

UK Property investors are drawing up lists of the property assets of the various Dubai property arms. P&O, which DP World owns, has a £1bn global property portfolio.

 
A minority stake it has in Elizabeth House next to Waterloo station is for sale as is the majority ownership of Morgan Stanley real estate funds.

The crisis could also stem the flow of Middle Eastern investment into the capital, something which has been protecting the market by propping up investment sale volumes. But it would be to soon to panic. Not all Western interests in the emirate will be affected and there is still the likelihood that Dubai will pull through this and return to growth.

We should wish it all the best, writes Allister Heath of City A.M., because if it fails, the lesson that many in the Middle East will draw from the crisis is that openness to foreigners, peace and trade don't work. The only winners then would be the extremists - and then we would all be in real trouble.

Investment activity has certainly improved as we have progressed throughout 2009 and things are clearly continuing to heat up, with investment bank Evans Randall poised to sell its Milton Gate development in the City at a profit less than six months after purchasing the property.

And we are not talking about a small scale return either. It is believed that the property, which is let to Addleshaw Goddard, has been placed under offer to Mutua Madrilena, a Spanish insurance company, for around £152 million, representing a 6.25% yield. This would see Evans Randall receiving a profit of £25 million on an asset it purchased in June of this year.

King Sturge partner, Patrick Cryer, said: "Evans Randall has taken advantage of the wall of equity ready to buy in the City and realised a 125 point yield shift in their favour. The market will not be surprised that it is under offer to a Spanish investor as they have been particularly inquisitive in the last quarter of the year."

To read about how the London investment market has performed this year please click here.