MORNING NEWS: Square Mile offices take London leasing higher

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers. A rush of deals in London’s Square Mile means the capital’s office leasing market has posted its highest number of quarterly deals since Q3 2023, with 489 businesses signing new leases. The City swept up 54% of leasing deals in the second quarter, according to Devono, raking in a total of 1.7m sq ft of leases, a third more than in the previous quarter. Tech-focused tenants drove demand, and accounted for two of three “mega deals” for more than 100,000 sq ft. The controversy over Marks & Spencer’s plans to demolish and redevelop its 1920s building near Marble Arch continues. Save Britain’s Heritage, a campaigner for historic buildings, has urged communities secretary Angela Rayner to reject the scheme in an open letter alongside the Architects’ Journal. “The grounds for refusing the scheme have only grown in the three years since M&S made its planning submission, and there is now an unanswerable case for the new government to act in accelerating the industry’s shift towards reusing, repurposing and extending buildings instead of demolishing and wasting them,” the letter said. “Make no mistake: M&S Oxford Street is a test case.” And the owner of a famous Glasgow property most recently home to Royal Bank of Scotland has plans to turn it into student accommodation. 250 St Vincent Street, built in 1878, was originally the MacLean’s Hotel and then the Windsor Hotel, before being turned into offices in the late 1980s. RBS took the space but left most of it in 2015, and it has been vacant since 2018. The building has planning permission to be turned back into a hotel, but fresh plans are now under way to redevelop it as student housing. There’s also news on a new Canterbury tale from Persimmon Homes, talks between Swedish hotel operator Pandox and Starwood over a portfolio of London aparthotels, and a thank you to Taylor Swift from Travelodge for helping half-year revenue to rise. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:City leads London office leasing surgeTravelodge thanks Taylor Swift for revenue riseRayner urged to reject M&S Marble Arch plansPersimmon starts a new tale with Canterbury communityTool supplier hammers out deal for Shoreditch HQYork’s Green Park Business Centre revamp approvedCambridge Science Park’s new R&D hub gets thumbs upFormer RBS Glasgow office set for student housing overhaulLondon office demand hits record high for third consecutive quarterUnite plots redevelopment of Bristol student schemeFiera and Wrenbridge buy Reading office for £75m logistics revampWavensmere homes in on Wolverhampton waterside regenSavills hires CBRE director for central London investment teamElectric go-karting operator revs up Bicester Motion plansGrosvenor refinances green syndicated loanDarGlobal enlists Rothschild for expansion plansBank of England to deliver one more rate cut this year, economists sayMike Ashley’s Frasers Group to snap up another shopping centre (£)Firm backed by Russian tycoon opens door into UK property market (£)Barratt merger with Redrow gets green light from regulator (£)PwC braced for six-month ban in China over Evergrande audit (£)Macy’s cuts sales forecast as shoppers tighten belts (£)