A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London boroughs

Westminster

Property Week reports that Hanover Green Retail and Nash Bond will act as joint agents to market Marylebone Square’s retail, restaurant and leisure space. It is a 0.75-acre site and will have 50,000 sq ft of class-E space as well as 54 luxury apartments. It is scheduled for completion in Autumn 2024.

Property Week also reports that Landsec has announced that 25,000 sq ft of space has been leased in Victoria at Nova and Cardinal Place. Nik Porter head of retail brand account management at Landsec has said that this demand is from “from the high levels of tourism in the surrounding areas, plus a strong catchment of office workers and residents.” Companies leasing the space include Five Guys, Casa do Frango, Incipio and Change Please. Change Please founder and chief executive Cemal Ezel said that “Our new space in the heart of central London will allow us to provide even more living-wage barista roles for local people experiencing homelessness.”

City of London

Property Week reports that law firm Addleshaw Goddard has signed a pre-let deal with Pembroke real estate company for 114,000 sq ft of office space. The agreement includes a 15 year lease and the refurbishment of the grade II-listed former bank that sits at 41 Lothbury. The refurbishment will be carried out by Wates Construction with the architectural practice Stiff + Trevillion. Pembroke is aiming to achieve NABERS accreditation and secure BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and Wired Score ‘Platinum’ ratings at this property.

Estate Gazette reports that Landsec has sold 21 Moorfields to Lendlease for £809m. The 568,000 sq ft development is fully pre-let on a 25 year lease to Deutsche bank with an annual net rent of £38m. Following development-related costs, the sale will result in a £733m net cash receipt to Landsec. Compared with the property’s value in March, this represents a 9% discount in value. After a strategic review by Landsec in late 2020, they have sold £1.8bn of London offices.

Camden

Property week reports that planning consent has been secured by Developer Native Land and real estate investor Ashby Capital for a 70,000 sq ft Kings Cross lab-enabled workspace. 105 Judd Street was acquired by Ashby Capital and Montrose Land in January 2021 from the Royal National Institute of Blind People. Alasdair Nicholls – Native Land chief executive said, “Our aim is to deliver high- quality workspace for London’s Knowledge Quarter, with outstanding floor-to-ceiling heights that create large-volume, creative workspaces that can be rapidly converted to science and technology research.” 75% of the existing fabric of the Edwardian building will be retained, but the development will see the building restored and extended with a publicly accessible café on the ground floor.

City AM reports that since January 2020 UK house prices have risen by 23.5%, however Camden has performed particularly poorly, only seeing an increase of 0.3%, one of the lowest local authorities.

Southwark

Property week reports that Southwark Council has approved plans by developer CIT for a 520,000 sq ft office block. The Colechurch House redevelopment has a sustainable outlook and will featuring green energy initiatives including energy generation which comprises of extensive photovoltaic panels. The redevelopment will be net zero and will exceed the current minimum standards for carbon reduction. Architectural firm Foster + Partners have designed the scheme with the 1960s office block being demolished and a 22-story building constructed. This will include a new home for the Southwark Playhouse Theatre, a public park as well as the office space.

Hammersmith and Fulham

Property Week reports that Gravity media has leased 50,000 sq ft in White City Place at the WestWorks building. White City Place is owned by Cadillac Fairview, wholly owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. They acquired White City Place in October 2020 and is part of the $35 billion in assets managed by Cadillac Fairview. The previous owner of White City Place, Stanhope continues as the asset manager of the site. Gravity Media is a global media production, creative service and facilities company and according to their managing director Ed Tischler “The expansion into a brand-new state-of-the-art production centre is a big moment for Gravity Media.”

General

Lee Rowley has been announced as the new housing minister. As reported in the Estate Gazette, Ian Fletcher head of policy at the British Property Federation said that he is “a good choice, as he knows the industry from covering construction” – Rowley had previously served as a minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. After his appointment was announced, he tweeted “A big job ahead to further help raise standards and service across the sector, to improve how planning works for local communities and, vitally, to empower more people to achieve their dream of home ownership.”

Estate Gazette also reports that by cutting stamp duty land tax (SDLT), this may create a ‘feeding frenzy’. Avinav Nigam, co-founder of IMMO capital said that a cut now would “risk worsening housing affordability even further” and that this could end up “stoking short-term demand in a supply-constrained market, and it risks pushing up prices.” Dave Sheridan, executive chair of Ilke Homes agreed saying “The past two years have taught us the demand-side solutions do little to help cool house price inflation, with prices reaching record highs since the introduction of Rishi Sunak’s own stamp duty cut in July 2020.” However, some industry figures such as Jeremy Raj, national head of residential property at law firm Irwin Mitchel have praised the plan of cutting SDLT. He said “SDLT is a bad tax that inhibits the market and is excessively complex and unfair. There are not many levers available to the government right now, but this is a good one to pull”.