Political turmoil was without doubt the low of 2017. Cabinet changes and in-fighting aside, the ups and downs of the Brexit negotiations have had an impact on the London market.
A number of businesses have faced difficulty in forward planning and making decisions about their future, prompting moves in the financial sector to other European locations and halting expansion plans against a backdrop of consolidation. At the same time London is set to also see the loss of the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam and the European Banking Authority to Paris. While these announcements represent a series of blows to the capital, the scale of demand lost within the occupier market appears, at present, to be relatively minimal.
The City remains a global powerhouse and an attractive market for doing business. It continues to draw highly skilled individuals to its universities, which creates a pool of prized talent and a rising population, which is a major incentive for a range of industries. This continues to be reflected in occupier and investor demand, which outperformed expectations in 2017. A number of major corporates including Deutsche Bank and Amazon have shown commitment to the UK as a result, the former representing one of the largest leasing transactions of 2017.
During the on-going period of negotiations to leave the EU, other European locations will continue to benefit from further movements of staff overseas. London, however, will continue to remain highly competitive as a market, benefiting from its readily available supply of talent, cultural environment, infrastructure and quality of real estate that is currently lacking in many competing locations.
The above is taken from the Carter Jonas Commercial Edge London report. The full report provides an economic overview and forecasts, as well updates on the investment, office, industrial and retail markets.
Commercial Edge is a bi-annual series of reports produced by the property professionals at Carter Jonas. While Carter Jonas provides a national service, the reports focus on the property consultant’s regional specialisms of London, Cambridge, Oxford, Bath and Leeds. Visit carterjonas.co.uk/commercialedge to download the full series.
