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LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Major companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Google have started searches for large-scale office space in London, bringing hope to a sector hit by falling rents and rising vacancies, a report said on Thursday.
Oil major Shell is seeking 220,000 square feet in the UK capital, equivalent to about three soccer fields, while Internet giant Google restarted its previously shelved search for 150,000 sq ft, property agency Cushman & Wakefield said.
"At the beginning of the year there were many more 'tyre kickers' in the market; occupiers with theoretical requirements for new office space but who were doing little to progress them," Guy Taylor, Cushman's head of West End agency, said.
"This has now changed ... as they look to realise value in what could be a relatively short window of opportunity in which they hold the negotiating balance of power," he said.
The take-up of office space in Central London rose 64 percent in the third quarter of 2009 from the previous quarter, while rents may have hit a bottom after plunging to their lowest in a decade, the agency said in late September.
The uptick in demand will benefit major UK office landlords such as Land Securities, British Land, and Hammerson.
Other companies that have started to search for office space include the world's largest insurance brokerage, Aon Corp , and UK business publisher Centaur Media, Cushman said.
These new requirements have helped boost the current demand for central London office space to 9.35 million sq ft, up 20 percent from the low point in January, it said.
(Reporting by Daryl Loo; editing by Simon Jessop)
(See www.reutersrealestate.com for the global service for real estate professionals from Reuters) Keywords: LONDON OFFICE/ Keywords: LONDON OFFICE/ =2

(daryl.loo@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 5228; Reuters Messaging: daryl.loo.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Major companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Google have started searches for large-scale office space in London, bringing hope to a sector hit by falling rents and rising vacancies, a report said on Thursday.
Oil major Shell is seeking 220,000 square feet in the UK capital, equivalent to about three soccer fields, while Internet giant Google restarted its previously shelved search for 150,000 sq ft, property agency Cushman & Wakefield said.
"At the beginning of the year there were many more 'tyre kickers' in the market; occupiers with theoretical requirements for new office space but who were doing little to progress them," Guy Taylor, Cushman's head of West End agency, said.
"This has now changed ... as they look to realise value in what could be a relatively short window of opportunity in which they hold the negotiating balance of power," he said.
The take-up of office space in Central London rose 64 percent in the third quarter of 2009 from the previous quarter, while rents may have hit a bottom after plunging to their lowest in a decade, the agency said in late September.
The uptick in demand will benefit major UK office landlords such as Land Securities, British Land, and Hammerson.
Other companies that have started to search for office space include the world's largest insurance brokerage, Aon Corp , and UK business publisher Centaur Media, Cushman said.
These new requirements have helped boost the current demand for central London office space to 9.35 million sq ft, up 20 percent from the low point in January, it said.
(Reporting by Daryl Loo; editing by Simon Jessop)

(See www.reutersrealestate.com for the global service for real estate professionals from Reuters) Keywords: LONDON OFFICE/ (daryl.loo@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 5228; Reuters Messaging: daryl.loo.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

By Daryl Loo

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Europe's largest listed industrial landlord, Segro, said on Thursday new enquiries for space continued to fall in the third quarter, although early signs of recovery have emerged.
"It's all a bit fragile still. We have seen since the end of the summer break enquiries that have been encouraging ... but I'm certainly not getting carried away," Chief Executive Ian Coull said in a conference call.
"There will continue to be pressure on enquiry levels and rents, because the general economic conditions have not completely turned around," he added.
By 0920 GMT, shares of Segro were down 2.9 percent, against a 1.4 percent fall in the UK property stocks index.
The company, which now has about two-thirds of its property portfolio in the UK and the remainder mainly in France, Germany and Belgium, said over the medium term it will focus on reducing the vacancy rate of the Brixton portfolio.
Segro, which took over indebted UK rival Brixton in August giving it a combined property portfolio worth 5.5 billion pounds ($9 billion), said its vacancy rate excluding Brixton's portfolio improved to 10.9 percent, from 11.3 percent.
Including Brixton, Segro's overall vacancy rate at end-September was 14 percent, it said.

With economic conditions across the UK and Continental Europe expected to remain demanding for some time to come, Segro said it plans to manage its business on a very prudent basis.
"The company deserves to be rewarded for its audacious acquisition of Brixton but the real estate cycle is not being shaped by micro or even macro drivers, but by government stimulus," Nomura property analyst Mike Prew said.
UK commercial property values staged the strongest rise in more than three years in September, after plunging 44 percent from their mid-2007 peak to hit bottom in July 2009, Investment Property Databank (IPD) data showed last month.
"We are ... encouraged UK capital values seem to have shown early signs of stabilisation and Continental Europe appears unlikely to suffer the same level of declines that we have seen in the UK," Coull said.
Segro said disposals totalled 285 million pounds in the first nine months of this year at an average initial yield of 8.4 percent.
The company currently has no plans for new equity issues to bolster its balance sheet or plot new acquisitions, after two rounds of fund raising earlier this year, Coull said.
Its UK peers Grainger and Quintain both unveiled rights issues earlier Thursday, proposing to raise 441 million pounds in total.

(Editing by Sinead Cruise and Andrew Macdonald)

($1=.6071 Pound)

(See www.reutersrealestate.com for the global service for real estate professionals from Reuters) Keywords: SEGRO RESULTS/ (daryl.loo@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 5228; Reuters Messaging: daryl.loo.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Europe's largest listed industrial landlord, Segro, said on Thursday new enquiries for space continued to trend downwards in the third quarter, although early signs of recovery have emerged.
"We are, however, encouraged UK capital values seem to have shown early signs of stabilisation and Continental Europe appears unlikely to suffer the same level of declines that we have seen in the UK," Segro Chief Executive Ian Coull said in a trading update.
Segro, which now has about two-thirds of its property portfolio in the UK and the remainder mainly in France, Germany and Belgium, said that over the medium term, it will focus on reducing the vacancy rate of the Brixton portfolio.
The company, which took over indebted UK rival Brixton in August giving it a combined property portfolio worth 5.5 billion pounds ($9 billion), said its vacancy rate excluding Brixton's portfolio improved to 10.9 percent from 11.3 percent.
Including Brixton, its overall vacancy rate is 14 percent as of end-September 2009, Segro said.
Segro said disposals totalled 285 million pounds in the first nine months of this year at an average initial yield of 8.4 percent.
(Reporting by Daryl Loo; Editing by Sinead Cruise)
(See www.reutersrealestate.com for the global service for real estate professionals from Reuters) ($1=.6071 Pound) Keywords: SEGRO RESULTS/

(daryl.loo@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 5228; Reuters Messaging: daryl.loo.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.