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5 Churchill Place building in Canary Wharf has recently been sold to a partnership owned and controlled by a Bermuda-based private investor. Canary Wharf authorities had originally planned to sell the building to an American investment bank at a whopping £208m.

There are 12 floors in the building, and ten of its floors have been taken by JP Morgan Markets for a 20-year lease, with a rent of £41 per sq ft.

Canary Wharf Group (CWG) had a profit of six percent from the sale. However, according to terms of an agreement, CWG will pay the rents for the two top floors of the building that are left unoccupied. The five-year rent amounts to £10m, and CWG will pay this amount to the tune of £2m per year.

As new tenants are hard to come by following the recession, the new agreement may turn out to be a big financial commitment for Canary Wharf, as the management may end up paying the rents for all five years.

According to Mike Prew, property analyst from Nomura, the recent sale has highlighted the fact that even in the present period of recession, Grade A London rent a desk spaces are high in demand. Prew added that as Canary Wharf is a bustling financial district, it will always have high-profile tenants willing to take up office space, even though business in down due to the recessive economy.

In a similar takeover, the HSBC London headquarters has recently been bought by South Korea