Death of the office? Don’t tell City businesses as leases shoot up in the first quarter April 26, 2022 London’s office market looks fitter and healthier than ever before, according to the two of the UK’s largest property firms, despite the lures of working from home. Take up of office leases in central London shot up 89 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, CBRE data shared exclusively with City A.M. revealed. City firms [...]
High street: Applications to convert shops to homes soar but councils reject almost half April 25, 2022 High street shop units are increasingly being targeted for conversion into homes, new data has revealed. Research by commercial law firm EMW found that the number of conversion applications leaped 37 per cent. Some 677 applications were made in 2020/2021, versus 494 in 2019/2020. However, out of the 677 applications for conversion, some 45 per [...]
LondonMetric Property locks sights on logistics spaces in recent buying spree April 25, 2022 LondonMetric Property has undertaken a buying spree across the city, as warehouse spaces in the capital climb to the top of the property investment agenda. The FTSE 250 property firm has dished out £26.7m on six logistics sites in the city, as Brexit and the pandemic push businesses to bring their supply chains closer to [...]
British Land sells off £694m stake in Paddington Central to Singapore state-fund April 25, 2022 British Land has sold off a majority stake in its London Paddington Central assets to Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. The London-headquartered firm, one of the largest property developers in the UK, will wrap up its majority ownership over the next three months, British Land confirmed in a regulatory filing today. The state-backed fund will [...]
UK house prices hit ‘hat-trick’ new high, climbing more than £5.5k since March April 25, 2022 The average price of a home has hit its third record high in just three months, as spiralling costs dampen the hopes of Londoners looking to climb the ladder. Prices have jumped 1.6 per cent since March – the equivalent of £5,537 – to £360,101 on average across the UK, according to Rightmove today. With [...]
Weekend read: First-time home now have to stump up £33k more than before Covid hit April 24, 2022 How much worse off are Britain’s first-time buyers now the pandemic starts to settle? Quite a bit, as it turns out, largely as a result of the post-pandemic property market boom. A new analysis of first-time buyer house prices looked at the cost of purchasing a first home before the start of the pandemic in [...]
UK avoided arming Ukrainians for fear of angering Putin, former ministers said April 23, 2022 The UK Government has avoided sending arms to Ukraine for the last seven hears out of fear of angering President Putin, the Sunday Times reported today. Former ministers said Boris Johnson and his two predecessors, Theresa May and David Cameron, have maintained a line of “appeasement” with Moscow since the country’s invasion of Crimea. “Some [...]
HMRC uses unprecedented amounts of data and ‘nudge’ letters in crackdown on foreign tax evaders April 23, 2022 The number of overseas investors confessing to tax evasion in the UK has more than quadrupled to 338 this year from 78 in the previous year, according to new data shared with City A.M. today. Many of these disclosures are from overseas investors in buy-to-let property who are coming clean about unpaid tax on their [...]
Housing stock running dry triggers market slowdown, new data suggests April 22, 2022 Homes changing hands has drastically slowed since the beginning of the year, with the market running dry of properties, according to the latest data. The number of properties up for sale has plunged a third, compared to stock levels available before the pandemic, research by Savills and data analyst TwentyCi has found. The UK’s property [...]
Dramatic clip shows moment renters are ‘attacked’ at London estate agent over ‘illegal eviction’ April 21, 2022 Dramatic footage has emerged online of showing the moment tenants were confronted at a London estate agents in a row over evictions. Seven people visited the offices of Eaton Green in Camberwell, protesting about alleged illegal eviction, before someone exited its office and started “attacking” the activists. In a clip shared on Twitter by @SarahWarsama, [...]