Global Premises

Office Space in the City of London is in short supply and this has created a situation where large businesses are trying to lease prime desk space. The fact that the Australian investment bank Macquarie was pitching for Drapers Gardens development before Black Rock Inc managed to lease the prime office space is well known.

In the present scenario British land Co. the second largest real estate investment trust in the UK has announced that eighty percent of the space available in Ropemaker Place has been leased by businesses. Australia’s Macquarie Group Ltd. has leased 217,000 sq ft out of the total 586,000 sq ft on offer. Chris Gregg, the Chief Executive officer has revealed that Mitsubishi UFJ Securities and Bank of Toyota-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. have leased 230,000 sq ft of office space in Ropermarker Place.

Andrew Hunt Chief of Macquarie’s European business has said that the company plans to relocate 1,000 of its employees working in UK to the newly leased office space. The lease of Citypoint tower for Macquarie is set to expire by next year and it is because of this that they have leased space in Ropemaker Place, although Andrew hunt has not given the details of the deal (rent ,lease terms and duration). Walking a similar path Nomura Holdings moved 3,500 employees from the Canary Wharf district to the Watermark Place.

It is believed that the lease of Macquarie is secured at a high rent, since office spaces are commanding high price because of shortage of available office space. One major reason for this is the slow progress in the completion of development projects. The number of projects expected to be completed by 2012 is at an all time low in the last twenty five years.