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The valuations of some of Canary Wharf’s largest offices are rising for the first time in three years: green shoots for the east London financial district whose bounceback has lagged that of the City.
The value of a £2bn portfolio that contains about half of Canary Wharf Group’s office holdings rose 0.6 per cent between March and June, according to data released by CWG, the landlord and manager of the wider Canary Wharf estate.
That comes after 11 quarters of flat or falling valuations. The portfolio includes offices occupied by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Brookfield Asset Management.
The other half of the portfolio mirrors that trend, according to people familiar with the matter. The group’s leasing volumes so far in 2025 total more than 450,000 sq ft, on track to exceed last year’s 700,000 sq ft.
This year’s volumes, which are expected to be a record, eclipse the annual totals for 2022 and 2023 and are expected to produce the best leasing year in over a decade, people familiar with the situation said.
The turnaround comes after a troubled few years in which rising interest rates and concerns about the viability of the office in a post-lockdown world dented prices.
Last year, independent valuers marked down offices owned by CWG by 4.1 per cent to £4.2bn. The decline was far less precipitous than in 2023, however, when the offices shed £954mn.
Now, the limited supply of top quality office buildings, and jostling by companies to entice their workers back in, is pushing up prices across London and the wider UK.
Take-up of office space across the UK totalled 20.3mn sq ft in the second quarter, reaching the highest rolling 12-month level since the third quarter of 2022, according to CBRE, the real estate adviser.
Though some top tenants have decided to leave Canary Wharf, including law firm Clifford Chance, others have decided to move there or extend their leases.
Visa is in talks to move its European headquarters there, the Financial Times reported earlier this month. HSBC has reversed its plan to completely quit while Spanish bank BBVA is leasing more space. Fintechs Revolut and Zopa have also secured new premises.
CWG, which is owned by Brookfield and the Qatar Investment Authority, has made efforts to appeal beyond its stable of corporate tenants by introducing hip restaurants, apartment buildings and shops.
That has translated into rising footfall, which was 72mn in 2024, up from 67mn in 2023 and 54mn in 2022.
