LONDON'S office market faces "imminent stress" as the fallout from the global credit crisis weakens demand for space in the financial district, according to Moody's Investors Service.
Conditions in the City of London deteriorated faster than any other European market last year, Moody's analysts wrote in a report on commercial mortgage-backed debt yesterday obtained by Bloomberg News.
Rents, occupancy rates and sale prices may worsen if the credit crisis continues and the supply of property increases, the New York-based ratings firm said.
Banks and securities firms may cut as many as 40,000 jobs in London in the coming months, according to forecasts by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. About 7.3 million square feet of office space is due to be completed in London this year with a further 8.3 million square feet available by 2010, CB Richard Ellis Group Inc, the world's largest realtor, said in a April 21 report.