London skyscraper set to become UK’s most expensive office with £1.8bn sale

Building could surpass sale of ‘Walkie Talkie’ that came with £1.3bn price tag

A lone woman wearing a facemask walks over an empty Waterloo Bridge in central London during England's third national lockdown (PA)

A London skyscraper is set to become the UK’s most expensive office when it is put up for sale towards the end of the year with a £1.8bn price tag.

The 37-storey 100 Bishopsgate has sat alongside the likes of the Cheesegrater and Gherkin buildings in the City of London’s square mile since its completion in 2019.

Now Canadian asset management firm Brookfield is set to sell on the property, having appointed agents to handle the sale last year while reportedly sounding out officers from major firms, The Telegraph reported.

The building has continued to go against expected trends in investment since its inception, having being built over the course of Brexit negotiations and now going up for sale as firms consider making working from home arrangements more permanent in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns.

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A property source told the newspaper the scale of the sale meant any interest would be “overseas exclusively, far Eastern most likely”.

The building is currently home to a number of prestigious tenants, including the Royal Bank of Canada, investment bank Jeffries and the Magic Circle law firm Freshfields.

A source close to the sale told The Telegraph: “We have a lot of conversations with people all the time”, with the publication adding that the building would likely be sold in its entirety as opposed to offering up a stake.

They added: “We intend to bring 100 Bishopsgate to market later this year once restrictions have eased so that we can run a full process and enable potential investors to conduct site visits.”

The current title for the nation’s dearest office block belongs to a neigbhour of the Bishopsgate building, 20 Fenchurch Street — nicknamed the Walkie Talkie — which sold for £1.3bn in 2017.