Great Portland Estates makes solid leasing and development progress

Great Portland Estates announced a “busy quarter” of leasing activity on Tuesday, with 28 new leases, rent reviews and renewals completed securing £10.2m of annual rent, along with “good progress” on delivering its three committed development schemes.

The FTSE 250 firm said that during the quarter to 30 September, GPE signed 17 new lettings across 75,500 square feet, generating a combined annual rent of £5.3m of which its share was £4.6m, with market lettings 2.5% ahead of the March 2017 ERV.

It said the largest letting during the quarter was to BCG Digital Ventures - part of the Boston Consulting Group - which expanded its presence at 30 Broadwick Street, W1 by taking the 14,600 square foot first floor, having secured the second floor in November 2016.

The building was now 85% let with one office floor remaining.

In total, GPE signed 170,100 square feet of new lettings since the start of the financial year on 1 April, generating a combined annual rent of £11.3m of which its share was £9.8m, with market lettings 2.4% ahead of March 2017 ERV.

“Today we have 202,600 square feet under offer for a combined rent of £9.8m, 1.8% ahead of March 2017 ERV,” the company’s board confirmed in its statement.

In addition, GPE settled 11 rent reviews in the quarter, securing £4.9m of rent of which its share was £4.1m, representing an increase of 31.1% over the previous rent and 8.7% ahead of ERV.

“Together with our leasing successes, our asset management activities during the quarter have increased the group's rent roll to more than £119m, a record high.”

Construction at the group's three committed development schemes continues to progress “well”, Great Portland’s board claimed.

Both 55 Wells Street, W1 and the residential element of Rathbone Square, W1 were expected to complete by the end of November and 160 Old Street, EC1 would complete in the first quarter of 2018, with 56% of the building currently under offer.

At Rathbone Square, where 140 of the 142 private residential units were pre-sold, the company said it would commence handing over the apartments to the buyers shortly after completion with the remaining 75% of the sale proceeds expected to be collected by the end of the financial year.

“We are pleased to report another quarter of strong activity, delivering continued leasing successes ahead of ERV,” said chief executive Toby Courtauld.

“The limited available space across our portfolio continues to attract healthy leasing interest and the further £9.8m of space currently under offer is testament to this.”