Green rules could make it impossible to rent some flats March 6, 2012 THE BRITISH Property Federation has called on the government to provide more clarity on the minimum energy standards that will be required by commercial and residential landlords beyond 2018 under new legislation. Changes being brought by the Energy Act 2011 will mean that hundreds of thousands of UK properties with the least energy efficiency – [...]
Real estate firms look to alternative finance as banks pull out of sector March 6, 2012 THE ARRIVAL of senior debt funds could provide welcome new sources of liquidity in the European property market as the banks continue to reduce their exposure to real estate lending, new research shows. Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European real estate lending survey found that just 36 out of the 78 leading global real estate finance [...]
Ulster Bank set for €1bn sale of property assets March 6, 2012 ULSTER Bank, the troubled Irish business unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, is readying itself to sell off assets worth €1bn (£833m) according to a source close to the situation. This could see Ulster Bank competing against the state-run National Asset Management Association (NAMA) in trying to offload property portfolios in Ireland. Ulster Bank, which [...]
ROYAL MAIL TO DEVELOP BATTERSEA DEPOT March 6, 2012 THE ROYAL Mail has won planning permission from Wandsworth Council to redevelop its South London mail centre next to Battersea Power Station into a residential scheme. The 13-acre development includes 1,800 homes, a primary school and retail and public space. Royal Mail will also invest around £50m in the extension of the Northern line and [...]
NEW GIG FOR SENTANCE March 6, 2012 FORMER Bank of England MPC member Andrew Sentance has taken on a new role on the board of trustees at Build IT, a charity that helps with building health facilities, housing and schools in rural Zambia. A keen guitar player in a band called Revelation, Sentance joins Build IT at the same time as the [...]
BREWIN DOLPHIN IN VICTORIOUS MOOD March 6, 2012 BREWIN Dolphin took on and beat a team from Rathbones in a rugby match played last week in the City. The match, in front of around 200 spectators, was a warm-up for a bigger fundraiser for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research: the London-Paris 2012 cycle ride. Brewin Dolphin is proving its pedal power with a team [...]
Betfair gets a boost from Aussie Open March 6, 2012 BETFAIR, the online betting group, yesterday said it took £50m of bets on the marathon Australian Open tennis final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, highlighting the growing popularity of in-play gaming on major sporting events. Horse racing was also a driver of growth, with races such as Kauto Star’s victory in the King George [...]
Telecom firms must warn over web copyright March 6, 2012 BT and TalkTalk lost a court appeal yesterday, meaning the internet service providers (ISPs) will now have to identify and warn customers who are suspected of illegally accessing copyrighted material online. The two major British ISPs challenged a High Court ruling, claiming the Digital Economy Act – a crack down on illegal file sharing – is [...]
Growth again for Inmarsat March 6, 2012 INMARSAT admitted its future with LightSquared is on the rocks and urged investors to “take a conservative stance on payments being received” from the US wireless company, which was the “primary driver” of revenue growth at Inmarsat in 2010 but defaulted on its most recent $56m (£36m) rent cheque. But the British satellite group said [...]
Pace ends a tough year with a profit March 6, 2012 PACE shares jumped 13 per cent yesterday after a fall of nine per cent in the previous day’s trading, despite the television set-top box developer posting a drastic slump in profits. After a year in which the company axed its senior management team, issued three profit warnings and saw its main hard disk suppliers hit [...]