A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London boroughs

Westminster

The Times reports that the former Le Méridien hotel on Piccadilly, once a favourite watering hole of George V, is to undergo a £90 million makeover after its acquisition by Fattal Group of Israel. Fattal will today announce the purchase of the freehold property from Archer Hotel Capital. It is understood to have paid between £80 million and £100 million, lifting its total investment to as much as £190 million. The 280-room hotel, which dates back 114 years, changed its name to the Dilly in May last year when the management contract with Marriott International, owner of the Le Méridien brand, expired. Advisers on today’s sale included Eastdil, Colliers and KPMG.

Property Week reports that global investment bank Lazard is relocating its UK headquarters in London to Manchester Square, Marylebone, after signing a 15-year lease for 78,500 sq ft of refurbished office space. Lazard, currently headquartered in Stratton Street, Mayfair, signed the lease with Invesco Real Estate, owner of the seven-storey property. The investment bank’s financial advisory and asset management businesses will relocate their UK headquarters from Stratton Street by early 2025. The move will follow a programme of renovations in accordance with the UK Green Building Council framework.

The City

City AM reports that magic circle law firm Clifford Chance is looking to give up its tenancy in Canary Wharf and return to the heart of the City of London after a decade. British property development investment fund Great Portland Estates (GPE) has confirmed that it is in talks with the firm for a pre-letting of one of its largest office developments, 2 Aldermanbury Square. The London-headquartered fund is expecting to pull in around £24m in annual rent from the site. The 13-storey building began construction in May of this year amid the demolition of City Place House, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Camden

The Times reports that British Land is planning to sell buildings in London whose tenants include Meta Platforms, the Facebook owner. The London-based property group has portfolio of mainly offices and shops and has hired an adviser to sell 10, 20 and 30 Brock Street, which are close to Regent’s Park and are valued at about £590 million, according to Bloomberg. British Land declined to comment.

Hackney

Property Week reports that Southern Grove has secured permission for a £75m mixed-use student accommodation scheme in Hackney Wick, east London. The Piano Works, on the site of the former Broadwood piano factory in Fish Island, will house 204 student beds in six- and seven-storey blocks. The ground floor of both buildings will act as an incubator space for the London College of Fashion. A third five-storey building will contain 9,041 sq ft of commercial floorspace that will be given over to community organisation the Stour Trust, which nurtures local enterprises. Southern Grove said it hopes to exceed a planning requirement that 35% of the student accommodation is affordable, providing a discount on market rents of more than 50%.

Tower Hamlets

Property Week reports that Uber has signed a five-year lease for 8,500 sq ft of ground-floor office space at Resolution Property’s Moretown hub.  The San Francisco-based company has become the latest tenant in the 600,000 sq ft office complex, taking space in Building 2, which covers a total of 87,162 sq ft. Building 2 is one of six buildings that make up the hub. The Uber office will become its ‘Greenlight Hub’, where drivers will be able to report for onboarding and assistance. This will be relocated from Uber’s current UK headquarters, just north of Moretown. A statement from Resolution Property said: “Leasing one of our units at Moretown to a global brand like Uber is testament to its strong position in London’s City fringe office market.”

Southwark

Estate Gazette reports that Twenty Twenty Ilderton Wharf and SGBD Property’s plans to redevelop the Jewson site on Ilderton Wharf, SE15, into a mixed-use scheme providing 170 homes has been approved. The joint venture plans to build three towers of nine, 23 and 25 storeys. The scheme will incorporate a new facility for Jewson designed to meet the builders merchant’s changing operational requirements. The plans include a larger double-height covered yard including an office area, with a smaller external yard. The proposals also include 170 homes of between one and four bedrooms, 40% of which will be affordable and 17,000 sq ft of amenity space, 2,100 sq ft of communal space and 8,200 sq ft of children’s play space.

Lambeth

Bdaily News reports that the first look of new Shared Ownership apartments launching in “eclectic” Brixton has been revealed. Housing association Notting Hill Genesis is bringing new homes for first-time buyers to Brixton with a boutique collection of Shared Ownership one and two-bedroom, open-plan apartments, launching this month. The new development called NINE Brixton comprises of nine homes. Lauren Nicholson, head of marketing and digital at Notting Hill Genesis, commented: “Brixton is an area that prides itself on community, and we’re excited to add to that with our new collection of Shared Ownership homes at NINE.”

Hammersmith and Fulham

London News Online reports that the Women-only housing tower block plan for Hammersmith was rejected. Bosses at a housing association which wanted to build an 18-storey tower block where only women could live say they are “very disappointed” after the plans were rejected. Women’s Pioneer Housing (WPH) wanted to build 270 new homes near White City, but the plans have been shut down by Hammersmith and Fulham council. The accommodation would be used by women who cannot afford to rent in the capital. WPH said the new homes were “much-needed” and it spent four years designing the site. The council was asked why the plans were vetoed, after a technical error meant the meeting was not broadcast in full, but grounds for rejection have not yet been officially divulged. It hoped to build a mix of flats and shared living spaces by bulldozing a block of one-bed flats and its current office building at 227 Wood Lane.

General

The Times reports that Sellers are demanding record amounts for their homes, apparently ignoring economists’ forecasts of an imminent fall in house prices. The average price of a property coming to market has risen by 0.9 per cent this month to a record £371,158, according to Rightmove, the online property portal. That is the strongest monthly rise since May, although less than half the level of price inflation at the start of this year when cheap mortgages and the “race for space” drove the market up.

House prices are 7.8 per cent higher than they were this time last year, compared with 8.7 per cent in September. Back in the spring, the annual rate of house price inflation was in double figures. Affordability for would-be buyers’ has been stretched by runaway house prices and that has been worsened by rising mortgage rates and the cost of living crisis. Because of that, most economists expect house prices to fall over the coming months, possibly by up to 15 per cent, Credit Suisse estimates. However, Rightmove said there was “little sign of downwards price pressure”. Nearly 25 per cent of homes on the market have had their prices cut over the past month but that compares with a five-year average of 32 per cent before the pandemic.