Avison Young loses over £100m for a second year as more jobs cut May 29, 2025 More than £100m has been lost for a second consecutive year by the UK and European arm of global commercial real estate services firm Avison Young as it continued to cut jobs, it has been revealed. The Birmingham-headquartered division has reported a pre-tax loss of £101.8m for 2024, having posted the same total for 2023. [...]
Mark Kleinman: AA float needs smart pricing to avoid breakdown May 29, 2025 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Here’s a candidate for toughest IPO mandate in the City: return the venerable AA, the UK’s biggest breakdown recovery service, to the public markets roughly five years after it was taken private for a fraction of [...]
Will the building safety levy constrain housebuilding? May 28, 2025 A new tax on the real estate industry risks trading a crisis in building safety for one of housing supply, argue Rick Atha and Amber Wright The building safety levy is due to come into effect in Autumn 2026, a year later than the government had previously indicated. The government aims to raise around £3.4bn [...]
Government slashes red tape to tackle housing crisis May 28, 2025 The government will slash red tape to get more construction by smaller building firms off the ground, and to “get working people on the housing ladder,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has said as Labour looks to promote its pro-business credentials. A relaxation of environmental protections is expected, including Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements which [...]
AIM to shed billions as market projected to shrink by a fifth May 28, 2025 London’s junior stock market is set to deepen its listing crisis as it heads towards its 30th birthday. The alternative investment market (AIM) is projected to have £12.3bn of market capitalisation, after 61 companies announced plans to ditch their listing. A combination of mergers, private equity takeovers, delistings in favour of private securities venues and [...]
John Lewis gets green light to build hundreds of homes in West Ealing May 28, 2025 Plans by the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) to redevelop Waitrose West Ealing have been given the go-ahead by Ealing Council after a successful appeal by the retail giant. The application, which has been in the planning system for nearly two years, is part of JLP’s long-term strategy to diversify its income streams via build-to-rent. The [...]
Oxford Street rebounds to pre-pandemic occupancy as firms bet on shops May 27, 2025 Shop vacancies on Oxford Street have fallen below one per cent for the first time since the pandemic as brands compete for best-in-class retail space. Overall shop vacancies on Oxford Street fell to 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the first time the figure has fallen below one per cent since [...]
UK is officially the work from home capital of Europe May 27, 2025 Brits work from home more than any other country in Europe, in an indication that corporate return-to-office campaigns have not yet ushered workers back into the office en masse. UK white-collar employees average 1.8 days a week WFH, compared to a global tally of 1.3 days, according to new research by King’s College London (KCL). [...]
Competition intensifies to buy UK supermarket stores despite uncertainty May 26, 2025 Real estate investors are increasingly competing to snap up UK supermarkets as a lack of new locations and slow planning processes weigh on developments. Grocery properties are “proving to be one of the most resilient and attractive investment sectors”, according to research by Colliers. Experts at the real estate firm said international and UK investors [...]
How to fix the housing crisis? We’ve told the government again and again and again May 23, 2025 I’m a London estate agency chairman – and I’m tired of talking about the same housing problems every month, writes Simon Gerrard.