Good morning. Put the kettle on before that first videoconference of the day.
The Treasury is set to lose out on £5bn of stamp duty(£) as the coronavirus pandemic puts the property sector on ice.
Meanwhile, surveyors are furloughing staff, cutting salaries and even making redundancies in an attempt to prepare for a lengthy hibernation(£).
Taylor Wimpey has become the first big housebuilder to say it will cut executive pay(£).
And nearly two thirds of UK companies(£) have barely enough reserves to survive three months of this. If the lockdown goes on for a year, only 6% say they will survive(£).
The government is reviewing its loan scheme for small businesses, to stop banks from taking advantage(£)…
… After all, we are all going to suffer together(£), says Revo chief Ed Cooke.
And the suffering will get worse, says analysts, who fear the true cost of the pandemic has yet to be priced into markets(£). Global markets fell further yesterday, after President Trump said that 240,000 Americans could die(£).
Savills shares dropped by 10% yesterday after it announced that it was scrapping its final and interim dividends.
Next, meanwhile, is seeking buyers for its Leicester HQ and three warehouses. It hopes the £100m cash injection from the sale and leaseback will help it come out of the lockdown fighting.
The planning process has been plunged into limbo, as councils and hundreds of major schemes wait for the government to issue guidance.
And we are still waiting for a planning White Paper, although former housing minister Mark Prisk has a few ideas about what to expect.
Allsop has embraced the new normal, managing to sell 69% of lots at its March auction, despite having to reschedule and take it wholly online.
Online auctions are just one of the ways the coronavirus lockdown will change the industry. Perhaps some of them are overdue. Will it simply result in a much-needed digital upskilling? Or could this truly herald a new era of flexible working?
Talking of which, are you suddenly able to play sports with your children each day? Has videoconferencing your colleagues at home helped you feel more connected to them than ever? EG mulls over the positives of having to work from home.
In other news, SoftBank has pulled out of its planned purchase(£) of $3bn of WeWork stock. We assume Adam Neumann has his lawyer on Zoom right now.
Peel Hunt has joined the ISPX stock exchange to help deliver ISPX Prime.
And a large section of the Berlin Wall has been demolished(£) to build a block of flats. Conservationists are furious, but surely a new community is better than an old division?
And finally, Sainsbury’s has found a nifty loophole(£) to keep nearly 300 of its Argos stores open despite the lockdown. Technically, the stores are concessions within food selling supermarkets. And the government rules say that supermarkets are essential shops, no matter what they sell. The same rule has prompted an Exeter garden centre to rip up a closure order(£) issued by the council. Why, asks Plants Galore owner Tony Joyner, should he be forced to close when the Aldi just down the road is open and sells many of the same products? Good point, Tony. Maybe if you started selling milk and eggs you could get yourself reclassified?
