Location, location, location!

From The Evening Standard:

In Old Bond Street, Italian luxury goods house Salvatore Ferragamo is finalising a deal to extend its lease at number 24, and is set to pay a rent equating to around £1,000 per square foot zone A - the industry measure for rent calculated by the most valuable part of the store.

The 3000-square-foot store will become the most expensive shop in the country, beating the previous record of £965 set by jeweller Piaget in 2009. In New Bond Street, British brand Belstaff has agreed to pay £3 million in rent for numbers 135-137 - a 25,000-square-foot store - equating to £840 zone A.

Zone A just refers to the very front of the shop, not the back or the upper floors; the second example averages out at £120/sq ft, so that might be a mix of 2,500 sq ft @ £840 and the remainder at £40/sq ft (for example).

You can cross-reference with the Valuation Office Agency's figures. The VOA say that one-fifth of the space at number 137 is Zone A, with a rental value of £425/sq ft, instead of one-tenth with a rental value of £840/sq ft, but the overall average comes out the same either way.

Nonetheless, even the average of £120/sq ft is heck of a lot of money, that equates to a site only rental value of £5 million/acre per year, or a potential selling price of £100 million/acre, which seems 'about right', seeing as the Chelsea Barracks site sold for £70 million per acre four years ago.