White City - The new frontier

Central London has witnessed the birth of a number of new markets in recent times; the Southbank, Paddington and King’s Cross to name a few.  These markets have succeeded due to the quality of space constructed, extensive transport infrastructure (both existing and new), and the delivery of new amenity encouraging a mix of uses.

White City is the latest new market, and has a clear advantage over the other new office markets created in Central London over the last 20 years: much of the infrastructure, amenity and culture for which new areas strive are already in place.

The area has one of the highest ratings for public transport accessibility in London; Westfield London, Television Centre and nearby Notting Hill provide existing and planned leisure provision; and the future presence of Imperial College’s campus, the Royal College of Art, and Soho House will contribute by offering an academic, creative and social environment 

The office stock is dominated by the new White City Place development, offering 822,000 sq ft of space across four buildings:  

• The MediaWorks, a 231,000 sq ft new building, has secured a 70,000 sq ft pre-let to online retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter, with a further 23,000 sq ft let to Huckletree.  
• Garden House, totalling 39,000 sq ft has been let to The Royal College of Art.  
• The WestWorks, a new 296,250 sq ft building, is under construction and due for completion in Q2 2017
• 2 Television Centre, a new 273,000 sq ft speculative scheme under construction and due for completion in Q1 2018

The paucity of development pipeline space across Central London along with prime headline rents near all-time highs in the majority of submarkets, will drive tenants’ searches towards attractively-priced, quality space.  The relative discount of White City, where the prime rent is estimated to be £52.50 per sq ft with business rates of circa £17.00 per sq ft, suggests the area will increasingly feature in tenants’ searches.

Above: The Westworks courtyard