KINGS Hill is celebrating its best ever year having completed property deals on over 190,000 sq ft of office and retail space.

Set in 800 acres Kings Hill, which also includes residential areas and retail and leisure amenities, has attracted five major new tenants in the past 12 months – all of which are substantial employers – and has renewed and reassigned leases on many of the large headquarters buildings.

Major deals for 2006 include a new 43,529 sq ft ‘build to suit’ headquarters building for rapidly expanding finance group Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited, the leasing of 25 per cent of the new speculative office building 42 Kings Hill Avenue to Viridor Waste Management and space to Elson Associates PLC, one of the UK’s leading investment brokers.

Kings Hill developer Liberty Property Trust UK Ltd also clinched the largest commercial property deal in Kent in 2006 when Sterling Insurance moved its Folkestone operation to the business park.

Andrew Blevins, managing director of Liberty Property Trust UK Ltd, said: "This proves that Kent is now regarded as a leading business location and we predict that this trend will continue.

"We are looking forward to an even better 2007."