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

Camden

A luxurious apartment in Hampstead,  NEW with a guide price of £3.5m is up for Auction at Barnett Ross’s sale on 28 Febuary. The 3,360 sq ft flat overlooking Hampstead Heath will be sold at The Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, W1

City of London 
 
EG reports that German fund manager Union Investment is in exclusive talks to buy DLA Piper’s new City HQ at 160 Aldersgate for around 200m – a yield of circa 4.5%. The building is owned by Castleforge Partners, which is carrying out a refurbishment to provide 266,000 sq ft of offices due for completion in August. Savills is representing Union.
City of Westminster

PW reports that Snapchat is set to almost triple its current presence in London having agreed terms to occupy 20,000 sq ft of space in Shaftesbury Avenue. The Silicon Valley firm’s new UK arm, Snap Group, has signed a deal at 77 Shaftesbury Avenue in London’s Soho, taking two floors at the Dolford Property Holdings-owned scheme, making the UK its main hub outside the US. It has signed a 10-year lease on the space, paying a rent of just under £80/sq ft. Snap Group will join Bank of East Asia, which occupies around 21,000 sq ft, and financial adviser Quayle Munro in the building. Dolford Property Holdings acquired 77 Shaftesbury Avenue from Swedish Life Insurance firm Gamla for £37.9m in 2010.

PW reports that NAMA has appointed agents to sell a prime residential development site in St Johns Wood. CBRE will market the Landseer, a 1.47 acre site that has planning consent for 132 private and affordable residential units totaling 143,246 sq ft and includes a 10 storey tower.

PM (Property Magazine) reports that London Business School has acquired a major new building adjacent to their Sussex Place home on The Regent’s Park, advised by Delancey. Acquired from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Crown Estate, the neighbouring 60,000 sq ft 27 Sussex Place building joins London Business School’s impressive portfolio and will see RCOG take a lease back for up to three years, following which they will relocate away from Regent’s Park. Supporting London Business School’s ambition to provide more space for research and teaching, Delancey has also worked to maximise London Business School’s existing land­holdings. At their Sussex Place site, planning permission was achieved to increase the site from 200,000 sq ft to 300,000 sq ft and an important re­gearing of an existing lease with the Crown Estate was secured.

Hammersmith & Fulham

PW reports Stanhope has entered a joint venture with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to deliver an initial 320 homes owned homes on council-owned land over 15 years. The JV, called HFS Developments, will initially build 190 homes for market sale at Watermeadow Court on Townmead Road in Sands End, Fulham, as well as 133 affordable homes at Edith Summerskill House on the Clem Attlee estate.
Islington

PW reports that online travel company Expedia has announced it will lease an extra 138,000 sq ft at its UK office in London’s Angel, as part of its global growth plans. It will also sign a new lease until 2030 on The Angel Building, which is owned by Derwent London.
Southwark

EG reports that  Pocket Living has submitted plans to Southwark Council for 57 homes in South Bermondsy, SE16. The whole scheme will be one-bed “compact, affordable homes offering high-quality living accomodatgion accessible to first time buyers” with a 20% discount to the market rate. The scheme has been designed to allow the development of adjoining sites, directly adjacent to the north for which Pocket Living has an option agreement.

PW reports that Apex Airspace, which develops space above existing residential and commercial properties, has secured a partnership with Lambeth & Southwark Housing Association (LSHA) to develop up to 28 new flats on top of a building in Southwark. The project will see a storey added to the current block that will provide 11 affordable rental flats for LSHA as well as 17 flats for sale by Apex Airspace.The project, which is subject to planning permission, has a gross development value of £8m. Modular construction will be used to manufacture the homes off site and the whole process is expected to take just 45 weeks from design to completion.