Derwent London Plc, which focuses on office development in the West End district of London, has stated that the letting prices have started to stabilize as companies are once again looking at securing space in the area.

John Burns, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, stated that the worst may be over in the West End market finally with letting decreases starting to dry up and once again maintain. He said this is partially due to the increase in enquires that began at the end of June.

In 1980 London experienced a recession that caused office lettings to drop in the popular shopping, restaurant, and theatre district of London with values that decreased by about 4.5%.

During this time period Derwent watched its desk space London lettings drop by about 10% during the first six months, so there is some historical truth and experience to Burns claim that the West End may begin to look up again.

Over the current recession, Derwent suffered losses of about 2.5% in London alone, but in the last six months shares have begun to rise again almost doubling which has helped the company reclaim some of its losses.

Out of the six largest publicly traded real estate companies in the UK, Derwent is the only one that was not able to drum up cash though rights offerings. However, Burns said that this is not cause for concern because the company has approximately £300m at its disposal if the need arises to match their balance sheet back up.