Another agency launches new office at controversial Nine Elms scheme

Another agency has opened an office in the troubled Nine Elms scheme in central London - this time the new entrant is CBRE.

The branch will provide residential sales, lettings and property management services across Nine Elms, Vauxhall and wider Battersea area. 

The newly refurbished riverside office is currently based in St George Wharf, with plans to move in to a state of the art unit within Barratt London’s Nine Elms Point development, upon its completion.

Under current plans Nine Elms is to be transformed into a new district with over 20,000 new homes and 25,000 job.

The CBRE move follows in the footsteps of other agencies.

Knight Frank recently opened a Battersea and Nine Elms office with senior staff moving from the agency’s branches elsewhere in the capital. JLL also opened an office, coinciding with a research report from the company claiming that “contrary to recent reporting, JLL’s research shows that average new build values and sales rates have remained robust, nearly doubling since Riverlight – the first residential scheme – launched in 2011.”

Not all residential operators are as optimistic.

Last month the investment company London Central Portfolio, using data from the Land Registry and consultancy London Residential Market Analysis, stated that square foot prices for the new-build developments at Nine Elms were down eight per cent on their 2014 highs. This came, said LCP, as square foot values across the capital as a whole had risen an average of 23 per cent in the same period.

In June buying agency Black Brick stated that “areas such as Nine Elms in Vauxhall and Earls Court in west London are particularly vulnerable” to economic uncertainty, and contrasted them with “stand-out developments” in some other parts of the capital.