Banks will need four Shards of City office space in the next three years

Report estimates an additional 1.6m sq ft of offices will be required by banks in Central London

Article posted: 20 Apr 2011

Banks will require an additional 1.6m sq ft of office space in Central London over the next three years – equivalent to four Shards or five Heron Towers, according to the latest research by BNP Paribas Real Estate.

In its biannual survey of financial institutions, the leading real estate adviser found that banks and other financial services companies will be expanding with a total of about 11,500 extra employees over the next three years, in a clear sign of confidence as the economy recovers.

BNP Paribas Real Estate has published the report (which it last carried out in 2008), using independent research company Lighthouse to interview a wide cross section of financial institutions.

Over the last five years, the ratio of Financial and Banking Services take up in the City as a proportion of overall take up has been 37% in 2006, 21% in 2007, 22% in 2008, 31% in 2009 and 36% in 2010. The research shows that typical take up of office space in the City of London per annum is 3.1m sq ft, and by translating projected jobs growth into floor space, the banks’ expansion will mean extra requirements of roughly 550,000 sq ft a year up to 2014.

Other findings of the survey show that 82% of those surveyed continued to view London as the leading financial centre. New York was second with 16%. When searching for new office space, Transport Links has again come out as the number one factor in influencing decision-makers, consistent with the last two reports. The next consideration for decision makers in this report is lease flexibility, followed by rent level and workforce availability.

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Posted by Sam