Good morning. Here is your morning cut of the property news, thinly sliced from the national press and seasoned with a sprinkling of EG.
Bovis is not a suitor who simply accepts rejection. It has now found the way to Galliford Try’s heart (£) – £300m in cash!(£)
Meanwhile Persimmon wants to make it clear that the only reason it hasn’t sold as many homes this year(£) is because those pesky customers will insist on them being built properly(£).
Both are probably less than thrilled by the latest figures for house price growth – or rather, at a mere 0.9%, lack of growth (£).
Even so, housebuilding is in better shape than retail.
In fashion, Ralph Lauren is still the King of Preppy Cool as revenues rise 1% to $1.7bn in Q2…
… But Superdry is still struggling to get its cool back(£), as its decision to ditch discounts(£) hits sales.
Halfords has narrowly avoided a profit warning(£), by wisely lowering its expectations.
Sainsbury’s has even called on the government(£) to allow it to turn defunct stores into homes(£), as it announces an enormous 91% fall in profits (£). Admittedly, most of that drop was caused its plan to save £500m by closing 125 stores, which has so far cost £229m.
Scary profits are also in the works for The Works. Although it does win the prize for best excuse. ‘Please sir, it was the Rugby World Cup that ate our profits!’ Even though it is barely November, it can’t wait for Christmas, when it hopes to cash in on Frozen II merch.
We can’t wait either! The really good news is ISPX reckons that £6.5bn of property IPOs are ready to go, once the ‘Christmas Election’ is out of the way.
And we know what we want for Christmas already, thanks to Diary, which has the skinny on this year’s must-have stocking filler. No, it isn’t a squishy Frozen II toy from the Works, its… brutalist architecture Top Trumps!
The BPF’s Melanie Leech also has her Christmas list ready…
… But so far Santa hasn’t had a letter from new Scottish Property Federation chair, Robin Blacklock.
Perhaps he is one of the hundreds of people wanting to relocate to the tiny Scottish island of Ulva(£), population: 6. The perfect place for peace and quiet. Until 350 more people move there, that is…
And finally, The Times (£) claims that there is a real estate angle to its salacious snippet from Adrian Tinniswood’s history of sex parties at British country houses, from Garsington manor to Cliveden. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?
