London’s Canary Wharf gains momentum as Visa, JPMorgan lease space

Visa Immediately following the announcement made by , it is moving its European headquarters to London’s financial district. JPMorgan He said he would build an iconic tower in an area considered the city’s answer to Wall Street.

Visa, whose European headquarters are currently in Paddington, west London, has signed a 15-year, 300,000 sq ft lease at One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, according to Canary Wharf Group. The company will move in the summer of 2028.

This follows news that JPMorgan plans to build a new 3 million-square-foot tower in the city’s historic financial district. HSBC, BBVA, Barclays, citibank and others rejoined the region in 2025. British fintech Revolut also opened an office in the region in September.

Canary Wharf has been hit particularly hard as the coronavirus pandemic triggered a shift to hybrid and remote working. The Docklands Core submarket, which includes Canary Wharf, hit record high vacancy rates of 18.5% in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from CoStar.

Canary Wharf Group CEO Shobi Khan told CNBC in September that there are three main reasons for the area’s revival, and that at this point Canary Wharf’s vacancy rate is 6%.

The first is the convenience of the Elizabeth line railway, which provides “never better” access to the area, and the fact that the site now has multiple uses, including residences, hotels and offices as well as offices.

“And finally, real estate is about supply and demand. The construction pipeline is closing after 2026 and so rents are being increased, we’re pushing rents and we’re taking advantage of having limited space for residents to look at,” Khan said.

“Canary Wharf is improving,” he added.

More than 750,000 sq ft of office lettings have been announced in the Docklands area this year; This was the year Canary Wharf Group said would be its best office leasing year in more than a decade.

This is helped by measures announced in the UK’s Autumn Budget that stabilize the long-term interest rate environment, a key metric for the property sector, according to Shabab Qadar, partner and head of Knight Frank’s London research.

JPMorgan’s commitment is a “big signal that London is open for business,” Qadar told “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday.. “London needs to be re-evaluated. There are currently very attractive prices for London offices.”

Companies are increasingly asking their employees to return to the office and encouraging them to do so; It offers the real estate industry some relief from the high risk of obsolescence, thanks in part to business changes during the pandemic.

“Occupiers want their accommodation to contribute much more to employee wellbeing. There is a war for talent and getting people back to the office, which we have seen increase significantly over the last 12 months, requires employers to provide the best quality office space for their staff,” Qadar said. he said.

“People have made the wrong decisions when it comes to downsizing over the last few years, and now we are going to see a period of growth,” he added.

Qadar said the new three-year stamp duty exemption for UK-listed companies would “give a boost to financial services in the city in particular”, but pension reform was also “critical to increasing London’s attractiveness to global investors”.

“Digital payments are powering economies across Europe. This exciting next step will better position us to lead the future of payments, giving Europeans access to world-class payment experiences while offering the highest levels of security, resilience and reliability,” Antony Cahill, regional president and CEO of Visa Europe, said in a statement.