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Interest is returning to commercial property in prime business locations, according to the chief executive of Hammerson, a FTSE 100 property firm. The company is in the midst of many deals with interested parties for renting out grade A properties, specially in the Square Mile.

Chief of Hammerson, David Atkins, has said that these enquiries and discussions reveal a growing interest in renting prime office space. Financial institutions and banks are especially showing great keenness in taking up new desk space to rent in prime business locations. Atkins has attributed this rise in demand to the economic upturn evident now, and to the limited space available in Grade A premises for new occupants. A combination of these two facts has served to boost demand levels.

Several of the developments on which work was halted may also be revived now, as developers are optimistic of filling up office spaces now following the many enquiries that are forthcoming for tenancy. Prospects are especially good for properties in the Square Mile.

These new office developments will have to be completed by 2013 in order to take full advantage of the current conditions. Hammerson is in pre-let discussions for two projects totalling a space of 800,000 sq ft. The two buildings located at Bishops Place and St. Alphage were to be occupied by JP Morgan earlier. However, the investment banker opted to move headquarters to Canary Wharf.

The Glasgow Silverburn building has recently been acquired by Hammerson at £297m.

The return on this investment is to be maximised with a combination of retail mix and asset management principles.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 6:14 am and is filed under It's Your Business, PR, Profitable Real Estate. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.