In one of the biggest commercial property deals in the UK, US technology giant Google is planning to build a $1.6 billion, 24 acre building to house its UK headquarters.

The site will be a disused area around Kings Cross station in London, and the technology giant expects to move into its new home in 2016.

Follow us

"This is a big investment by Google," Matt Brittin, Google's vice president for Northern and Central Europe, said in the statement to Bloomberg. "We're committing further to the UK - where computing and the web were invented."

Google already has two offices in the Victoria and Holborn districts of London, but all staff will be moved to Kings Cross when the site is ready.

The company has traditionally leased its international offices but more recently has purchased premises in Paris, Dublin, and now London.

Tax campaigner and accountant Richard Murphy told Reuters that the decision to buy property rather than rent was likely "tax motivated."

"If you're not going to send it back to the parent company to repurchase its shares, which is the normal route for a US corporation sitting on a pile of cash, what else are you going to do with it?" said Murphy.

David Clementi, Chairman of the King's Cross Central Limited Partnership, told London24, that Google's decision was fantastic news for the capital and for the King's Cross.

"Google is one of the world's leading companies, a dynamic, innovative and forward thinking business. It fits perfectly with our vision of King's Cross as a creative commercial centre for London," said Clementi.

The move forms part of the regeneration of the King's Cross area following the opening of the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras in 2007. The project expects to create  35,000 jobs and more than 1,900 new homes.

Construction of Google's new UK headquarters is expected to begin in late 2013, subject to planning approval.

Join Our Conversation

Smartphones

LG to launch always-on, voice-controlled smartphone next year

BlackBerry Q10 arriving on AT&T on June 21

HTC unleashes Butterfly S: Price, specs, availability

Huawei wants to acquire Nokia, calls Windows Phone "weak"

Tablet / Laptop / PC

Microsoft Surface RT 2 to rock Qualcomm 800 chip, Windows 8.1

AT&T Galaxy Note 8.0 LTE costs $399.99 on contract, $199.99 with smartphone bundles

Chromebooks land on Walmart, more retailers to get it soon

Apple's next iPad mini 7.9 inch Retina display will be Samsung-made

Gadgets

Nintendo 3DS outsold Microsoft Xbox 360 in the U.S.

AMD moves from Intel's x86 platform to ARM for servers

OUYA team and E3 organizers battle over parking lot space

Sony PlayStation 4 to be available at $399 at the end of this year

OS / Software

PS3 latest software update 4.45 bricking the consoles

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update for Sony Xperia Z spotted in video

Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update reportedly coming in July

iOS 7 Beta comes with a bug that opens the lock screen to access photos [Video]

Internet / Social Media

Microsoft Socl adds meme generator and GIF creator

What to expect from Facebook's June 20 event

WWDC 2013: OS X 10.9 Mavericks Safari is going to help you extend battery life

Samsung Galaxy S3 browser bug spikes data usage, slows loading times

What's App

Microsoft paying app developers up to $100,000 to bring content to Windows Phone 8

Windows 8.1 brings newly updated Xbox Music app

Instagram may add video on June 20 to challenge Twitter's Vine

Microsoft Office now available for iPhones, but there's a catch