Great Portland Estates : Strong operating performance, supported by record leasing and flex expansion

During a year marked by elevated political and economic uncertainty, we have delivered a strong operating performance with record leasing, positive rental growth and resilient financial results.

Despite the impact of recent interest rate rises, London has continued to recover and is evidently busier than this time last year; centrally located offices are returning to more normal levels of occupation, and the West End is seeing higher numbers of both shoppers and tourists, supported by the opening of the Elizabeth Line.

From here, whilst macro-economic challenges are likely to persist, we do not expect the recovery to be uniform. For some time, we have witnessed a growing divergence between the prospects of the best spaces versus the rest, and we believe this is set to widen further as customers seek out sustainable and well designed, prime spaces, of which there is a marked shortage, particularly in the West End. Consequently, we have increased our rental growth guidance for our prime offices to be between 3% to 6% for the year.

Through our strategic focus on prime HQ and Flex offerings, we are well positioned to benefit, and we are growing our ambition. Our office-led capex programme extends to more than £800 million of best-in-class sustainable spaces and we are targeting growth of our Flex space to more than one million square feet, underpinned by our Customer First service approach which is delivering industry-leading customer satisfaction. So, with exceptionally strong finances and plentiful liquidity, we will continue capitalising on opportunities that are emerging, and with our experienced team, we can look to our future with confidence.