Canary Wharf has announced two new major leasing deals, taking the total amount of space leased this year to 250,000sq ft.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) will extend their office footprint to 60,000 sq ft and extend its lease at One Canada Water until 2035.
SmartestEnergy, which helps companies navigate the energy transition, will lease 20,000sq ft at 7 Westferry Circus.
Companies recommitting to space at Canary Wharf include Barclays, Citi, Fitch, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Revolut, and UCL.
This flurry of interest in the riverside location follows a post-pandemic shift away from the area, with a trend to hybrid working encouraging companies to relocate to smaller, more central locations.
CWG’s office buildings shed £180m in value in 2024, although they lost almost £1bn the year before, signalling a stabilisation in the market.
Canary Wharf has been busy ‘place-making’
Still, vacancies remain at record highs. In the Docklands area, which includes Canary Wharf and part of the surrounding Isle of Dogs peninsula, a record 18.6 per cent of office space was available last month, according to CoStar.
To combat this shift, CWG has been employing a range of tactics: it has been encouraging multi-use spaces like housing, retail and hospitality, as well as new types of businesses like life sciences.
When 17 Columbus Courtyard is completed in 2026, for example, it will provide approximately 200,000 sq ft of new laboratory space for late-stage start-ups and established companies.
Despite the high vacancy rate, Canary Wharf still has huge pull, due to its connectivity and capacity – the Jubilee Line, DLR and Elizabeth line all serve the water-front location.
Tarun Mathur, director of office leasing at CWG, said the Wharf is a “vibrant mixed-use destination”.
“[It] provid[ed] a best-in-class environment for people to enjoy, whether you’re coming here to work, visit or live, and seeing businesses grow here is testament to the fantastic place that we have created.”