Dealmakers race to close London office sales with £3.8bn under offer

Central London’s office investment market is working up to a sprint finish to end the year as dealmakers race to close nearly £4bn of deals under offer. Data from Savills suggests dealmakers have been hard at work, with £3.84bn of office investment stock under offer – an increase of 71% since the end of Q2, when the total was £2.25bn. The year has already seen a number of big-ticket sales, of which there was a dearth in 2024. The City, where just four deals over £100m closed last year, has already seen six so far this year and is poised to have more. Capreon is under offer for Nuveen’s 300,000 sq ft 70 St Mary Axe, EC3, otherwise known as the Can of Ham, for a figure which could stretch as high as £340m, after bids by Blackstone of £300m and £320m were rejected over the past year. Market sources say the deal is an important indicator of the direction of pricing, bringing clarity to a market with few recent data points to guide it. Similarly, the sale of the soon-to-be-vacated Lloyd’s Register HQ at 70 Fenchurch, EC3, which is under offer to private equity investor Henderson Park, will inform investors about the level of pricing for refurbishment stock. US investor Hines is back to buying in London and is under offer for fintech Wise’s new HQ Worship Square, a 140,000 sq ft office block owned by developer HB Reavis. Landsec’s sale of its development site in London’s Southbank market has also drawn attention after news came that Stanhope and Cheyne are under offer to acquire the site, which has approval for 250,000 sq ft of office space, for around £45m. Market sources say the duo would need to be pricing in rents of over £100 per sq ft and a strong exit price to justify an acquisition at that price.  In the West End, which saw comparatively less of a dip in larger asset sales in recent years, talk is centred around GPE’s sale of 1 Newman Street. After losing out to Delancey and Aware Super in a fierce bidding war over 11-12 Hanover Square, W1, Royal London is under offer to acquire the asset for around £250m. Image from PR