Market News

The US private equity giant has agreed to fully lease the 10-storey prime office building, comprising 226,000 sq ft of office space.

The site, close to Blackstone’s current base in Mayfair, is occupied by Lansdowne House, but is being redeveloped by developer CO-RE and architect AHMM, with construction slated to be completed by 2028. The building will accommodate over 1,800 seats as well as 14,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail space and redeveloped public areas at the south end of the square.

Blackstone, whose major European investments include Mileway Logistics and Bourne Leisure, has doubled its London headcount over the past three years to around 500 people.

The deVere Group, which has $12bn under advisement, has said that it will temporarily close its property investment division as inflation fears grow with immediate effect.

The group said it was “concerned about the availability of credit and, therefore, an imminent drop in property prices so we are temporarily suspending all property investment projects”.

Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere, said: “[The] Bank of England’s chief economist has indicated that interest rates could rise sharply imminently.

A staff memo seen by the news agency said HSBC is considering moving its headquarters as result of the rise in hybrid working following the pandemic. The bank has been based in Canary Wharf since the completion of its office tower in 2002, known as the ‘Tower of Doom’ by members of staff. 

HSBC last year said it would aim to cut around 40% (8.6m sq ft) of its office space across the globe in an attempt to it reach net zero carbon emissions. The 45-floor tower in London’s Docklands has been home to over 8,000 HSBC employees for the past 20 years.

Earlier this month commercial property adviser DeVono published data that revealed rising vacancies and falling lease income in the Docklands area in the second quarter of this year.

UK Commercial Property REIT has posted a 1.5% increase in NAV per share to 88p at the end of March, compared with 86.7p in December.

Its portfolio value was mostly flat at just under £1.2bn, after £58m of disposals and £7m of investments made during the quarter. Like-for-like portfolio capital value, net of capital expenditure, grew by 1.6%. Rent collection for the second quarter stood at 86% after allowing for agreed rent deferrals and monthly payments. During the quarter, the firm completed its purchase of a £29.1m student accommodation asset in Edinburgh.