PPHE unveils £90m plan to turn lap dancing club into luxury London hotel June 23, 2025 Hotel giant PPHE has unveiled plans to turn an east London lap dancing club into a huge new hotel as it continues its expansion in the capital. The London-listed firm today unveiled a £90m proposal to construct a 21-story tower on Leman Street in Whitechapel, which will feature 182 rooms, a restaurant, bar, gym and [...]
UK housing market: ‘Not fixed, but less broken’ June 12, 2025 Decades of underinvestment, underbuilding and overegulation have clobbered the housing market. The UK is now short about 4.3m homes, with the worst crisis in cities. Labour, which made solving that crisis a central mission of its first year in government, has made tracks to get Britain building again – reforming planning, trying to bridge the [...]
Relaxed mortgage rules could increase first-time buyer deals by a quarter June 2, 2025 Changes in the way lenders stress test borrowers for mortgages could lead to a huge jump in the amount of first-time buyers able to access the housing market, according to Savills. Savills’ analysis found first-time buyer transactions could increase by up to 24 per cent over the next five years if lending rules continue to [...]
Zoopla: Rightmove rival handed £500m price tag April 30, 2025 Online property portal Zoopla has been put up for sale with an asking price of around £500m, it is understood. The company, which was launched in 2008, has put on the market by Silver Lake Partners which has owned the group it forms a part of following a £1.6bn deal in 2018. That group also includes [...]
London house prices fall fuels sales surge April 24, 2025 Sales of prime central London housing jumped up during the first three months of 2025 as prices fell amid the ongoing global uncertainty. Residential sales activity in the first quarter rose 12 per cent compared to 2024, according to new research from global property advisor JLL. “There are clear signs of renewed confidence across prime [...]
Paypal to open major office in London landmark April 23, 2025 Electronic payments giant Paypal has signed up to become the first occupier of a redeveloped office building on London’s Southbank. Paypal has agreed a lease for 40,000 sqft on the top floor of the building, a newly revamped Grade II-listed structure next to the National Theatre. Overall, the building will provide another 300,000 sqft of [...]
Knight Frank makes the City its global headquarters April 8, 2025 Knight Frank, the global asset management and real estate giant, has signed a deal to relocate its global headquarters to the City of London. The business will relocate from its current HQ at London & Regional’s 55 Baker Street in the West End, where it has been since 2008, to One Liverpool Street after penning an [...]
How will the tariff turmoil affect your mortgage? April 7, 2025 The fallout from President Donald Trump’s decision to impose wide-ranging tariffs on the world has left no stock market unscathed, but it’s possible Brits’ mortgages will benefit from the upset. The decision, which placed a minimum tariff of 10 per cent on all countries (including the UK), and higher tariffs on many more, has increased [...]
Birmingham landmark on sale in cut-price deal as value slashed in half March 11, 2025 A landmark office building in Birmingham city centre has been put up for sale for half what it was bought for in 2019. The Lewis Building and its adjoining neighbour Priory Court in Bull Street were acquired by Gulf Islamic Investments for £140m. The investor, which has offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, bought the [...]
UK property: Why funds are ditching the direct investing model February 11, 2025 One of the last UK funds that invests directly in property is ditching its investment model in favour of a hybrid plan. The new mixed model will see the £112.6m TIME Commercial Long Income property fund holding a combination of assets directly with some real estate investment trust (REIT) shares. 90 per cent of the [...]