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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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• London 2001
  
• London 2001, 2
  
• London 2005
  

For the London office market in general 2000 was an especially fruitful year. The rents increased by a average of 25-30 percent. The smallest gains were mentioned in the City, where the rents for the prime offices went up "only" by 15 percent reaching $95-100/sq.meter per month (1 sq.meter=10 sq.feet). The biggest rent increases (40-60 percent) were mentioned in the relatively cheaper areas such as Docklands and Tower Hamlets where rents achieved the level of $50-55/sq.meter per month. In these areas the average rent is as high as a half of the prime office rent.

The London office market rapid development in the recent years has several reasons. The first is that the British government among the European states was the pioneer in the process of economic deregulation. In the early 80s the Prime minister Mrs.Margaret Thatcher began a policy that greatly increased the role of the private enterprises. This policy then heavily criticized in the continental Western Europe would become into fashion there some 10-15 years later*.

Second: London as a major business center was the first in Europe to pave a way for the new more open economic policy. That created favorable conditions for foreign capitals and almost all major American companies which are working in Europe have already established their overseas HQ in the capital of the UK.

On the third place is a gradual process of European integration and creating of single markets of goods, services and labor force for 370 million consumers. By gradually liberalizing and deregulating the national markets within the EU the capital flows moved to areas with higher profits and bigger prospects such as the UK. Today many major European banks and corporations have already established their HQ in London taking advantage from the better business climate.

With the major western economies slowing down and the inflation in the UK under control, the Bank of England (the central bank) began a process of easing the interest rates. It is expected that in the months ahead the bank will lower further the interest rates which in turn will lower the bond investors' yield. The options for long-term investment beyond the government bonds aren't limitless. Some of them are the corporate blue chips and the real estate development. With no big enough yields on the stock exchanges around the world the only remaining option for long-term investment is the real estate market.

So we can expect that in the coming months the office market in London will experience growth both in the demand and in the supply and maybe very soon London will surpass Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world.

* - It is an irony that in today Western Europe where most of the governments are center-left coalitions, there is a general understanding among them that the only way of achieving substantial development is through the rigid budgets and low inflation which was initially championed by Mrs.Thatcher.

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