The continued strong take up of offices at Century City has seen almost all new stock being mopped up and overall vacancies dropping to 7,4% in April from just under 10% in January this year and 12,1% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Jason Elley of Rabie Property Group, the developers of Century City, said of the 45 000m2 of new office space that had come on stream in the precinct since November 2015, only 1 040m2 remained to be let.
He said the total lettable area of offices at Century City is currently just under 350 000m2 of which only 25 800m2 is currently vacant.
“And most of this vacant space is in older buildings with 11 000m2 in one building alone – the old PriceWaterhouseCoopers premises – where we understand a number of options are being explored which if this building is taken out of the office equation, it will reduce vacancies to 4,6%.”
Elley said recent lettings of new premises in Century City included the entire fourth floor comprising 1 158m2 in the Apex building in Century City Square to Mastercard and 446m2 in the same building to Storetech.
“This iconic building, which is also home to Thomson Reuters, Derivco, Norfund and Nocks Oil, has only 296m2 out of 8 100m2 left to let and this is under offer.”
The other new buildings in Century City Square are the Matrix and the Annex. Of the 24 sectional title offices in the Matrix , only two – each of 122m2 – remain to be let while the Annex is fully let.
“At Mayfair Square where 18 units totalling 3 050m2 were bought to the market only one measuring 159m2 remains to be let and this under negotiation.
“Similarly at Grosvenor Square only two units – one of 212m2 and the other of 192m2 – are still available.”
He said a 300m2 architecturally bespoke studio office which had been custom built for Chris Bam Architects had also recently been completed in the Manhattan Park precinct.
“Demand has simply been astonishing and shows no signs of letting up. We are now in the process of bringing additional stock to the market which will be available from the middle of next year” commented Elley.
