West End office rents slide on hedge fund woes

Date: Monday, January 12, 2009
Author: Daniel Thomas, Property Correspondent, FT.com

The retrenchment of the struggling hedge fund industry has led to a rapid fall in rents paid for the most expensive offices in central London.

Rents for prime offices in London’s West End dropped by almost a third last year, according to NB Real Estate, a property consultancy, dropping from a peak of about £120 per sq ft in 2007 to £85 per sq ft by the end of 2008.