Good morning. Warm the pot, lad, and get a brew on.
MIPIM has been postponed until June, as organiser Reed MIDEM decides its priority must be the wellbeing of its clients and staff. On the plus side, the weather will be better then, too!
Boris Johnson’s chief advisor – no, the other one – has been accused of a conflict of interest after taking £487,000(£) from Malaysian developer EcoWorld while he was chair of Homes England.
Meanwhile, unlikely Robin Hood figure, chancellor Rishi Sunak,(£) wants to take nearly £3bn from entrepreneurs to give to the North.
The bidding is underway for Asda, with Blackburn-based billionaires the Issa brothers in the frame(£), along with property hungry Lone Star Funds and a clutch of private equity houses. Those undervalued property assets are looking darn tasty…
Talking of potentially undervalued property assets (he hopes) The Times (£) this weekend also had a good piece about John Whittaker and his possible plans for intu…
Meanwhile, Dame Sharon White is set to launch a strategic review of John Lewis(£), as it writes down the value of its portfolio.
Debenhams is demanding more rent cuts from landlords(£), after its lenders said they won’t release more funds without reductions. Its almost as if they don’t want the department store to stay afloat…
And Morrisons and Kingfisher could be knocked out of the FTSE 100(£), as they find themselves in the relegation zone near the end of the season.
Amazon Go’s customers are told to just walk out with their shopping, as the Big Brother camera system(£) already knows what you’ve put in your basket and has already charged you for it. All the thrill of shoplifting with none of the criminality!
Talking of criminality, the home secretary is being urged by the Ramblers(£) to rethink plans to make intentional trespass a criminal offence.
Housebuilders could be forced to pay compensation to tens of thousands of homeowners, after the CMA found evidence of mis-selling of leaseholds(£).
And thousands of Northern Rock shareholders(£), who were paid nothing for their stakes, are also seeking compensation as the bank returns £5bn to the Treasury.
KPMG’s pension division(£) will be bought out by staff in a £200m leveraged deal(£).
At HB Reavis, Gaia Arzilli is in charge of innovation across a 14m sq ft development pipeline. But, she says, that is just the tip of the iceberg…
Councils are calling for a national register of Airbnb-style lets(£), as it is revealed that one-in-four are illegal.
While the floods continue to terrorise parts of Britain, spare a thought for the residents of Hasankeyf in eastern Turkey. There is evidence of people living in the town for 12,000 years, but no longer. The waters have now submerged the town following the completion of the huge Ilisu dam.
And some of the world’s wealthiest people are spending millions to hide their ownership of luxury property(£). In the UK some £138m is paid as a levy on companies owning homes to disguise the identity of the owner, with 75% of that in Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.
And finally, some of those same people are objecting to the reopening of Madam Jojo’s in Soho(£). The burlesque cabaret, which was closed in 2014 after a fight between a punter and bouncers, was awarded a licence in December to return to its former glory. But residents are opposed, saying that the nightclub, which operated on the site for fifty years, would make the area too noisy at night. Yep, that’s right. Soho. To which these people clearly moved for the peace and quiet.
