UK's British Land lifts earnings forecast as AI firms flock to London campuses

Tue, 21st Apr 2026 09:02

* AI and tech firms drive double-digit rental growth at London campuses

* Anthropic ⁠signs its sixth lease with the company

* British Land raises earnings guidance for fiscal 2025 and 2027 (Adds shares in paragraph 6, details on demand for office ‌space from AI firms and results throughout)

April 21 (Reuters) - Real estate group British Land Company raised its annual earnings ⁠guidance on Tuesday as a scramble for office space by ⁠AI and technology companies, including Anthropic, drove double-digit rental growth across its London campuses.

London is emerging as a leading technology hub, with firms such as OpenAI establishing bases in the city, helping offset weaker demand from traditional businesses that have scaled ‌back office space as hybrid work takes hold.

British Land said it signed Claude creator Anthropic for 158,000 square feet - the equivalent of almost two soccer fields - at its Regent's Place campus, marking its sixth deal with the artificial intelligence developer, which is expanding its UK presence.

Drugmaker Gilead Sciences is among the other pharmaceutical and tech firms at the Regent's Place campus, it said.

British ‌Land's Chief Executive Simon Carter, who plans to step down this year, said the company was seeing "accelerating demand from a new wave of ‌AI and innovation-led occupiers" in a supply-constrained market.

The company's shares were up 2% at 0713 GMT.

British Land, which operates the Broadgate, Regent's Place and Paddington Central office campuses, said occupancy rose to 95% at end-March from 92% at end-September with most remaining vacancy located in newly delivered space, where demand ‌is strongest.

AI tenant demand has pushed campus rental growth to 12% on a like-for-like basis for the year ended March, boosting overall like-for-like net rental growth to 6%.

However, like-for-like net rental growth at ⁠its retail ⁠and London urban logistics cooled to 2% from 5% growth ‌seen last year, as demand normalised and retail parks neared full occupancy.

British Land said underlying earnings would reach 28.9 pence per share for fiscal 2026 compared to prior guidance of 28.5.

It also raised its ‌guidance for next fiscal year's earnings to at least 30.5 pence per share from 30.2 pence, helped by the completion of its Life Science REIT acquisition. (Reporting by Simone Lobo and Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar and Joe Bavier)