Unilever commits to keeping London listing but delays decision on moving headquarters November 28, 2017 Consumer goods giant Unilever today announced it will maintain its stock market listing in London but has delayed any announcement on the potential relocation of its headquarters until the political situation calms down. Unilever will simplify its complex corporate structure, unifying shares into a single class as it tries to make itself more agile when [...]
Autumn Budget 2017: Chancellor Philip Hammond’s speech in full November 22, 2017 You can read the chancellor's Budget speech in full here: Mr Deputy Speaker I report today on an economy that continues to grow, continues to create more jobs than ever before and continues to confound those who seek to talk it down. An economy set on a path to a new relationship with our European [...]
New Bond Street overtakes Champs Élysées to become Europe’s most expensive shopping street November 15, 2017 London’s New Bond Street has overtaken the Champs Élysées to become the most expensive place in Europe for retailers to have a store. With a price of $1,720 (£1,305) per square foot per year, New Bond Street is the third most expensive shopping hotspot in the world, after Upper 5th Avenue in New York and [...]
Swim with the pigs in the Bahamas: How domestic swine became big business for the paradise islands November 13, 2017 On 9 September the ocean around the Bahamas’ Long Island and the Exumas vanished. Where there should have been endless stretches of aquamarine, there was mile upon mile of muddy grey sand, flecked with seams of stringy kelp, all set against a foreboding backdrop of slate-grey cloud. Sandwiched between hurricanes Irma to the west and [...]
Carles Puigdemont and Catalan ex-ministers released in Belgium pending ruling November 6, 2017 Five Catalan separatists including the ousted president Carles Puigdemont have been released in Belgium to await a court hearing in Brussels. Puigdemont handed himself into Belgian police early on Sunday. He will now appear in court within the next two weeks, so that the authorities can decide whether to yield him and his former ministers [...]
A new film studio in Dagenham East could add £35m to the economy, London mayor Sadiq Khan says October 30, 2017 The mayor of London has said a new film studio in Dagenham East could generate £35m for the UK’s economy and create hundreds of new jobs. Sadiq Khan and the leader of Barking and Dagenham council, Darren Rodwell, today announced plans to make Dagenham East a world-leading destination for blockbuster movie production. Khan revealed a [...]
Google parent Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs building its own smart city in Toronto. But why not London next? October 18, 2017 Google’s parent company Alphabet is building its own city, where it will tackle some of the most pressing issues facing London: urban growth, energy use, housing costs, and transportation. But it’s the Canadian city of Toronto where 800 acres of waterfront space will be built “from the internet up” by the tech giant, not the [...]
What needs to change about housing policy by UK property professionals ahead of party conference season September 15, 2017 Katherine McCullough, development director at Merchant Land “During the political party season, I would like to see some attention given to reviewing what Osborne’s stamp duty reforms have achieved and ideally, to have them reversed in order to help stimulate the housing market at the top end. It would also be encouraging to hear discussion [...]
New Queensferry Crossing creating a catalyst for investment September 13, 2017 The royal opening of the Queensferry Crossing, signalled the successful culmination of the biggest infrastructure project in Scotland for a generation. Exactly 53 years since Her Majesty opened the adjacent Forth Road Bridge, The Queen officially cut the ribbon to open the £1.35bn Queensferry Crossing on Monday 4 September 2017. World-class engineering The new iconic [...]
The future of shopping malls and what it means for property investors August 30, 2017 The growth of e-commerce is reshaping the retail world. Online sales have been growing globally at an annual rate of close to 25% in recent years. This holds ramifications for the world’s shopping centres and malls as retailers re-evaluate their ‘bricks and mortar’ store strategies. Investors in commercial real estate funds, which often own retail [...]