Deutsche Bank Signs 15-Year Lease for c.150,000 Sq Ft at YY London, Canary Wharf

• Deutsche Bank has agreed a 15-year lease on approximately 150,000 sq ft across five floors (levels one to five) at YY London, 30 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, with occupation expected from early 2028
• Building owners Oaktree Capital Management and Quadrant Estates were advised by Knight Frank and CBRE on leasing; the deal follows a London-wide search by Deutsche Bank ahead of the July 2028 expiry of its existing lease at 10 Upper Bank Street
• The 415,000 sq ft building is now around 85% let or under offer following this letting and a separate deal for its eighth floor; roughly 60,000 sq ft remains available across floors six and seven

Deutsche Bank has confirmed it has secured office space at YY London in Canary Wharf for its infrastructure functions, including technology and operations teams, ahead of the expiry of its current lease at 10 Upper Bank Street in July 2028. According to the bank's own announcement and subsequent trade press reporting, the lease covers five floors — understood to total around 150,000 sq ft, though earlier reports citing people familiar with the deal had suggested a figure closer to 250,000 sq ft — let on a 15-year term. The building, formerly known as 30 South Colonnade and renamed YY London after its refurbishment, is jointly owned by Oaktree Capital Management and Quadrant Estates. The bank's core UK businesses will remain at its headquarters at 21 Moorfields in the City of London, where asset manager DWS is also due to relocate in late 2027; the Canary Wharf move is specific to Deutsche Bank's infrastructure functions. Deutsche Bank's UK and Ireland chief executive, Vathany Vijayaratna, cited the building's sustainability credentials and employee amenities as key factors in the decision, while Oaktree's Stuart Keith and Quadrant's Jeremy Lacey both framed the letting as validation of the redevelopment strategy pursued since acquisition.

Oaktree and Quadrant acquired the building — then known as 30 South Colonnade and vacated by long-standing tenant Thomson Reuters — in May 2019, buying it from China's HNA Group (via Beijing-based partner Cindat Capital Management) for a reported price of approximately £135m, a substantial discount to the roughly £215m HNA had paid for the asset in 2015. The new owners subsequently carried out an extensive refurbishment, delivered by Skanska under a further circa £135m construction contract, which added additional floors, a new façade, restaurant and rooftop terrace space, taking the building's total floor area to around 415,000 sq ft. The building already houses fintech group Revolut's global headquarters, which took roughly 113,000 sq ft across four floors on a ten-year lease in 2025.

The letting adds to a run of significant office transactions in Canary Wharf that market commentators have pointed to as evidence of a recovery in the estate's occupational fortunes, following a period in which rising interest rates, the shift to hybrid working and high-profile departures — including HSBC's move of its headquarters to the City — weighed on landlord sentiment and valuations in the district. Deutsche Bank's decision to remain in Canary Wharf rather than consolidate its infrastructure functions elsewhere in London is a notable data point for occupier advisers and investors tracking demand for large-floorplate, sustainability-certified space in the docklands submarket, particularly as the building's near-full letting status — around 85% let or under offer after this deal — illustrates continued institutional and corporate appetite for comprehensively refurbished, amenity-rich office buildings even in a market that remains bifurcated between prime and secondary stock. For Oaktree and Quadrant, the letting represents a further return on a redevelopment strategy that began with a distressed acquisition from an over-leveraged seller in 2019, underscoring how value-add repositioning of older Canary Wharf stock has, in this instance, generated strong leasing outcomes on completion.