British Land has signed a total of 465,000 sq ft of new lettings at its recently completed London office developments since the announcement of its third quarter results in February, with an additional 154,000 sq ft under offer. Together the new lettings increase the Group's overall office occupancy rate from 84% to 92% and have a weighted average lease length of 15 years to first break. The terms agreed exceed the December 2009 estimated rental values ("ERV"), and add an additional £19 million of headline rent per annum to the Group.
British Land has signed a total of 465,000 sq ft of new lettings at its recently completed London office developments since the announcement of its third quarter results in February, with an additional 154,000 sq ft under offer. Together the new lettings increase the Group's overall office occupancy rate from 84% to 92% and have a weighted average lease length of 15 years to first break. The terms agreed exceed the December 2009 estimated rental values ("ERV"), and add an additional £19 million of headline rent per annum to the Group.
At Regent's Place in the West End the whole of 10 Triton Street (117,000 sq ft) has been let to Aegis Group plc and at 20 Triton Street, 89,000 sq ft has been let to Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited and a further 30,000 sq ft is under offer. In total, 57% of these two new buildings have now been let.
In the last two months the following lettings within the City portfolio have also been completed or agreed:
· At Broadgate Tower, part of the Broadgate JV with Blackstone, 39,000 sq ft has been let to Gill Jennings & Every LLP and Dickson Minto bringing the total occupancy to 72%.
· At Ropemaker, the letting of 217,000 sq ft to Macquarie Group was announced in February and a further 86,000 sq ft is currently under offer.
· At 201 Bishopsgate, 38,000 sq ft is under offer.
Over the last two years British Land has completed five new office buildings in the City and West End adding 1.7 million sq ft of modern Grade A space to the Group's prime office portfolio.
Tim Roberts, Executive Director and Head of Offices, said: 'The level of letting activity in the London office market has increased significantly in the first quarter. We've seen rental values firming with all of our recent deals accretive to value. Our office portfolio is now 92% let with an average lease length of nine years to first break. We continue to see good levels of interest in our remaining space and are optimistic about the outlook given the shortage of high quality prime Grade A space over the next few years.'