Weekly Data Sheet – 11 April 2025

Helical and Orion exchanged contracts this week with an undisclosed party for the forward sale of 100 New Bridge Street in a positive sign for the London office market.

IPE Real Assets, however, understands that State Street is the buyer of the 100 New Bridge Street building.

The transaction, which took the form of a share deal worth £330m (€380), will complete on practical delivery of the building, which is expected in April 2026.

“This transaction is a true reflection of the quality of 100 New Bridge Street as a London headquarters destination,” said Matthew Bonning-Snook, CEO of Helical. “The very strong interest we received in the scheme over a year ahead of completion is testament not only to its best-in-class characteristics, but also the acute shortage of prime office space within the submarkets Helical has targeted as part of its significant development programme.”

Aref Lahham, founding partner and managing director of Orion Capital Managers, said: “This transaction successfully capitalised on the intensifying occupier demand for the revitalised heart of the City of London amidst increasing supply constraints.”

Investors, developers and agents have been forecasting a rebound of London office investment in 2025 after transactions fell through the roof last year, with figures provided by adviser Savills showing a nearly 60% fall on the long-term average.

Yet, the recovery so far has been moderate at best in the UK capital, with only a handful major transactions being signed in the first quarter of the year.

Asset manager Nuveen is now said to be testing the waters for a potential sale of Devonshire Square, a private campus comprising 13 multi-let buildings in the City of London, close to Liverpool Street Station. If successful, the sale would mark a turning point for the market which saw a number of transactions fall through this year.

Nuveen last week reportedly rejected Blackstone’s £322m bid for the London office building known as the Can of Ham, one of the few big-ticket office properties put up for sale in the recent past. Also, Brookfield failed to sell its London CityPoint tower earlier this year and is now seeking approval for a refinancing of the loan to January 2028. 

The facility, which was already extended by three months in January, currently expires on 20 April. The new refinancing request comes at a time when one of the largest tenants in the building, Simmons & Simmons, which accounts for 20% of rental income, has confirmed that it will exercise its break clause option in March 2030.

“The proposed loan extension to January 2028 would reduce the workout period, in the event of a loan default, from four years to one year. We believe that the proposed tail period of one-year would be insufficient to resolve the loan in a workout scenario, despite the collateral being a well-located office property in Central London,” analysts at S&P Global commented this week in a note to clients.

The data sheet also includes a number of new development loans and refinancings in the finance section as well as a few new assets for sale. In the fund section, Blackstone raised €9.8bn of total capital commitments for Real Estate Partners Europe VII, making it the largest European real estate drawdown fund ever raised based on third-party capital commitments.