Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Visa is moving its European headquarters to Canary Wharf, the latest in a number of big companies to sign up for office space in London’s Docklands financial district.
The financial payments group was leasing 300,000 sq ft at One Canada Square for a 15-year term, said Canary Wharf Group, the landlord and manager of the wider estate.
Visa will move to the building in the summer of 2028 after its current lease at 1 Sheldon Square in Paddington expires, confirming an earlier report by the Financial Times that the group was in talks to relocate to the Canary Wharf skyscraper.
Visa will lease 11 floors in the building, including the space being vacated by credit rating firm Moody’s, which is moving to a new office near St Paul’s Cathedral. The space will be about 50 per cent larger than Visa’s current London headquarters.
There has been a resurgence at Canary Wharf after a tough few years since the Covid-19 pandemic, when interest rates rose and office valuations plummeted.
Occupancy rates for a £2bn portfolio containing about half of CWG’s office holdings rose to 90 per cent in the third quarter for the first time since 2022, filings show, up from 86 per cent in the second quarter.
During the second quarter, the valuations of those buildings increased for the first time in three years. The valuations held steady in the most recent quarter.
CWG said 2025 would be its best year for total leasing volumes in more than a decade.
Fintechs Zopa and Revolut are taking on new leases in the area, while Barclays and Morgan Stanley have agreed to stay put. Deutsche Bank has also been in talks to sign a new lease at another building near its current location, the FT has reported.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan last week said it would co-develop its own site in the area with CWG, and construct a 3mn square-foot tower that could house up to 12,000 employees. Canary Wharf Group will not receive rental income from that building, but will benefit from the resulting footfall.
Shobi Khan, chief executive of CWG, said Visa “joins a fintech community of more than 65 companies”, a customer base that “reflects our evolution into a thriving mixed-use district”.
The group has been expanding its portfolio beyond corporate tenants, adding restaurants, retail and leisure. Hotels and apartment buildings are being built, with thousands of units of housing available. The Elizabeth line has also been beneficial, connecting an area once seen by many as too out of the way to central London in minutes.