HSBC Building Sold for £1.09bn

/>HSBC, the global banking giant or the world’s local bank as they are known, has sold its London headquarters in Canary Wharf for £1.09bn to Spanish property group Metrovacesa. This is the largest ever property deal in British history.

HSBC agreed a leaseback agreement with Metrovacesa for the 45-storey tower block located in the city of London near the River Thames. The Swiss Re's Gherkin building sold for £600m in February which has been dwarfed by the figure that the HSBC building sold for, but it does solidify the strength of London's commercial property market at the moment.

The gigantic office block sold for more than double the cost of its construction in 1998 of £500m. HSBC moved into the building in 2002. The 210m-high tower at 8 Canada Square, which has 1.1m sq ft of space, will remain HSBC's global headquarters as they have leased the building for the next 20 years at an annual rate of £43.5m. The building houses 8,000 staff and includes a gym that occupies an entire floor, dining rooms, shops and a medical centre. So it may be the most expensive place to work, but should also be the healthiest.