Rent incentives peak on top London offices - Land Securities - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - A lack of top-quality offices in London's financial district was keeping incentives for companies to rent them in check, despite the poor economic backdrop, the chief executive of Britain's largest listed property company Land Securities said.
The shortage meant an average 12-month rent-free period on a five-year lease - a typical incentive used to attract new tenants - was unlikely to increase, Rob Noel said after a trading update on Wednesday.
"Modern efficient space is evaporating," said Noel, describing the London market for top quality office space as "supply-constrained".
Incentives like rent-free periods or paying for an office fit-out become more generous depending on the strength of the lettings market.
Land Securities is developing the skyscraper known as the Walkie Talkie with Canary Wharf Group in the heart of London's insurance district, a sector doing relatively well despite the wider economic crisis due to its counter-cyclical nature.
A 20-year deal with insurer Markel for the 26th and 27th floors of the building at a rent of 65 pounds ($100) per square foot included a rent-free period of 32 months. Noel said there were no extra incentives despite recent media reports that other sweeteners may have been included.
Land Securities said 19 percent of the office floor space in the tower was already let or going through the legal process in its trading update.
The Walkie Talkie is one of several skyscrapers under construction in central London that have suffered from a muted lettings market following of the global financial crisis.
The Shard, the European Union's tallest skyscraper, opened earlier this month, outside the financial district, though it has yet to announce its first office tenant.
Developers are betting that a wave of lease breaks and expiries over the next few years will prompt tenants to move into high-quality new offices.
(Editing by Erica Billingham)
Vauxhall reveals its new Adam hatchback - Honest John
Vauxhall has revealed its new small hatchback - called the Adam. We're not quite sure where the odd name comes from but in terms of styling it seems Vauxhall has been influenced by plenty of other small yet stylish cars. It will be available to order in September with the first cars arriving in January 2013. Prices are expected to start at around £10,000.
The firm describes the Adam as 'heralding a sea-change in the fashion-led hatchback market' but in our opinion it looks like a mish mash of bits from the Citroen DS3, Audi A1, MINI and the Fiat 500. It's obvious the three-door Adam is aimed at buyers those cars so it's ironic that Vauxhall says the newcomer has a 'fresh and bold design' that they claim will appeal to 'open-minded individuals'. Whether those buyers will see a Vauxhall as desirable as an Audi or a MINI for example, remains to be seen.
Personalisation is a big thing with the new Adam with a large variety of customisation options including two different roof colours (similar to all its rivals), various interior colours, headlining and a LED-lit roof trim. There are three trim levels Jam, designed to be fashionable and colourful, Glam which is supposedly elegant and sophisticated plus Slam, a sporty trim.
Power comes from a choice of three petrol engines, all of which are four-cylinder units. The entry-level is a 1,2-litre with 70PS plus there are two 1.4-litre engines, one with 87PS and the top 100PS version. All comes with a five-speed manual gearbox while a stop/start system is available as an option. After launch there will be a new small petrol added which has direct injection and a turbocharger plus an all-new six-speed gearbox.
As well as Bluetooth the Adam is available with an infotainment system which is designed to connect with iPhones and Android-based smartphones and has a seven-inch colour touchscreen. The Adam is also available with a heated steering wheel.Other new-to-Vauxhall technology includes an Advanced Park Assist system which measures parallel spaces and then automatically steers the car in while the driver controls the brakes and accelerator.
Wheel sizes range from 16-inch to 18-inch and cars that are specified with 17inch or 18-inch wheels come as with the lowered sports chassis. The latest generation ESP system is standard including a Hill Start Assist function. Handling on city roads is helped by a CITY mode, which increases the electronic power steering system’s assistance at lower speeds.
London 2012 withdraws Olympic football tickets - sportbusiness.com
Tiers and whole sections of stadiums will be closed to reduce capacities across the six Games venues – Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, City of Coventry Stadium, Manchester United’s Old Trafford, St James’ Park in Newcastle, Hampden Park in Glasgow and London’s own Wembley.
Even allowing for the reduction, 250,000 tickets remain on sale for the tournament, a further 200,000 will be released before the Olympics’ opening ceremony on July 27 and 150,000 are to be made available for school children through organising committee LOCOG’s Ticketshare initiative.
By contrast, 50,000 tickets for non-football events are left for London 2012 with a further 200,000 set to hit the market, but LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe insists numbers stack up favourably when compared to football at previous Olympics.
“They are in reduced size venues of course, we've had to scale down the size of those venues,” said Coe, according to Reuters. “We've sold more football tickets than we've sold anything else.”
He added: “We've got 37-38,000 tickets we've sold for Britain ladies v New Zealand which I think benchmarks pretty well, for instance, with the women's FA Cup final this year which was an all-London affair at the Emirates (Stadium) and they had about 5,000. We are not in bad shape on tickets, but football tickets at a Games are always the challenge. I think we'll do pretty well.”
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