Out with the new, in with the old
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07/11/2011
Como hosted their biggest breakfast event to date on 3 November at The Drift in Heron Tower. Over 100 guests attended to hear guest speakers, Digby Flower of CBRE and Richard Baldwin of Derwent London, discuss the topic for the day - ‘Out with the new, in with the old’. Giving an overview of the market, the speakers focused on the refurbishment of existing spaces rather than fitting out new spaces as the new norm, requiring less capital and shorter programmes.
Among the guests were attendees from leading client and consultant firms including Weil, Ashurst, Linklaters, Land Securities, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, GTMS, Deloitte, TP Bennett, Pringle Brandon, Jones Lang LaSalle and Savills.
Digby Flower, executive director of CB Richard Ellis gave his view on the market from an occupier’s perspective by looking at each of the main sectors i.e. banking and finance, legal, accounting insurance and TMT. With the exception of the TMT (technology, media, and telecoms) sector, he believes the market is fairly static and significant improvements are only likely in a couple of years’ time.
As the head of development at Derwent London, Richard Baldwin gave the developers perspective on the market. He reported that many occupiers are now only willing to pay between £35 and £50 per square foot and this is where efforts should be targeted. Their offer addresses key areas - volume, cost, space, sustainability and design and with a vacancy rate of 1.1% across all their buildings, it is certainly one to follow.
This is what some of the guests had to say about the event:
‘Excellent presentation, thank you’. - Linklaters
'Great morning, good venue and well executed talks. Great way to start the day’. – Aecom
‘Great seminar, think one of the best I have attended’. – Savills
‘Really interesting topic and a great networking opportunity’. – Deloitte
‘Excellent session, great talks, great venue’. – TP Bennett
