The Cash Trio

Rent is Central London is rising fast, which is forcing companies to move out of there. According to Savills Commercial this year the rent of a property is the most important factor while choosing an office. This could be the effect of recession and cost reduction drives, as rent was the third important factor in such decisions in 2007.

Increasing rent in Central London has already cause Statoil and Rio Tinto to vacate their desk space London there and shift out. Now AstraZeneca is also vacating its Mayfair office and shifting to a new office in Two Kingdom Street, Paddington. According to the company, the rent is Mayfair is very high. They are currently paying around £40 a sq ft in Mayfair (the average rent in Mayfair being £80 a sq ft). Since it wanted to provide capital for further growth of the company, the company wanted to save on expenditure. The Paddington office will allow them to still be close to the Airport and London city and thus seems to be a good choice.

However, the company will have to wait for one year before it can move into the new office space. The Paddington office is still in the process of refurbishment and that will take a year to complete. Once that is done, all the staff will be moved in from Mayfair.

It has been reported that J Sainsbury is also planning to move to a new 300,000 sq ft office in North London. They currently have an office in Holbron, Central London. The new office is under construction and is being developed by Argent.