OntheMarket will fizzle out before its first birthday because unlike Zoopla and RightMove it serves the middlemen, not home buyers and sellers July 29, 2015 Years ago, estate agents used to sell properties via traditional marketing campaigns, from listings in a shop window to double page adverts in the local newspaper. Times have certainly changed and these days nearly all property buyers head to Zoopla or Rightmove to find their next property. This week marks the six-month birthday for [...]
Great Scotland Yard snapped up by Indian billionaire Yusuffali Kader’s Lulu Group for luxury hotel July 26, 2015 Indian billionaire Yusuffali Kader has snapped up the historic home of London's Metropolitan police and will turn Great Scotland Yard into a luxury hotel. Kader's Abu Dhabi headquartered Lulu Group has bought up the Edwardian building in Whitehall in a £110m deal with Galliard Homes, and will work with the Steigenberger Hotel Group to run the [...]
Focus on St James’s: The home of the English gentleman July 9, 2015 In many ways, St James’s resembles the City. Sure, there aren’t any skyscrapers and it’s not half as old, but it’s SW1’s commercial hub and barely anyone lives there. As proud purveyors of men’s garments since the Victorian age, it boasts such prestigious names along Jermyn Street as Turnbull & Asser, Alfred Dunhill, while St [...]
July Budget 2015: From the pensions expert to the PwC economist, reactions to the chancellor’s statement July 9, 2015 THE BUSINESS GROUP Confederation of British Industry director general John Cridland Firms will welcome measures to boost investment but will be worried about paying living wage. “This is a double edged Budget for business. Firms will welcome measures to balance the books and boost investment, but they will be concerned by legislating for wage increases [...]
London mayor hopefuls square off on Heathrow July 1, 2015 PROPOSALS to build a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport are set to take centre stage in the race for City Hall, as mayoral hopefuls plant their flags on all sides of the debate. The Airports Commission’s recommendation yesterday to expand Heathrow has cut across party lines, with Conservative and Labour candidates split over the [...]
Why we should mobilise public land to tackle London’s housing crisis June 28, 2015 A starter for ten. How much of the land in the London Borough of Southwark is owned by Southwark Council? 10 per cent? 20 per cent? More? Answer: 43 per cent, including, astonishingly, 10,000 garages, most of them part of council housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s. Southwark Council is not exceptional. London’s [...]
Return of London’s mansions: The former homes of aristocrats are being converted June 25, 2015 It isn’t often that a prestigious street in London falls out of favour. You won’t see a regeneration of Eaton Square or the King’s Road any time soon. But Connaught Place, a handsome street lined with Georgian mansion blocks overlooking Hyde Park, was the Belgravia of pre-war London and it’s experiencing a resurgence in popularity. [...]
UK house prices: Tony Pidgley’s Berkeley calls for Britain to stay in the EU as housebuilder’s profits rise 42 per cent June 17, 2015 London-centred residential property developer Berkeley Group announced a 42 per cent increase in full-year profits today, but warned a British exit from the EU would be bad for the capital's property market. Read more: How can the UK build more houses? In preliminary results for the year to the end of April, Berkeley stressed that the [...]
London Technology Week: Tech City is an awesome success story combining the best of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, New York and DC June 16, 2015 I emigrated from Silicon Valley a little more than ten years ago to work at a very young startup at the time, Skype. It was so new then that I spent months correcting friends’ pronunciation of the company name from Skype-ee to Skype. At that time I was exasperated at the dearth of candidates for [...]
Unite fund buys student digs for £271m June 15, 2015 UNITE’S UK Student Accommodation Fund (USAF) said yesterday that it has snapped up a 2,100-bed portfolio for £271m in its first deal since its £306m fundraising last month. The portfolio, which was acquired from Ahli United Bank, includes eight sites located across seven prime student accommodation markets including London, Glasgow, Leeds and Birmingham. FTSE 250 [...]