Good morning.
Blackstone is repositioning its $378bn property portfolio(£) away from offices, following the £465m sale of BNY Mellon’s London office and the impending deal to buy GCP Student Living.
The Conservative party has an “unhealthy financial reliance” on property developers, says Transparency International. It claims the donations buy favour, which may come as a surprise to landlords still smarting over the eviction moratorium extension.
The bank holiday may be less likely after last night, but all remaining limits on social contact will still be lifted on 19 July(£). But the PM is urging “caution”, and mask wearing will be “expected”(£) in busy spaces, despite no longer being a legal requirement. Oh, and another lockdown is likely in the autumn.
The fact that a Canadian maker of facemasks(£) is looking for scores of sites to build more UK factories might tell you more than the PM’s cautious optimism.
Shares in both Landsec and Derwent London rose on Friday as they announced they were making “good progress” with June’s rent collections(£).
Businesses are preparing to buy up rivals and unleash investment(£), according to Deloitte. Just don’t expect them to invest in new offices.
Telford Homes will buy Redrow’s half of the £180m Capital Interchange Way housing scheme in Brentford, west London. Telford will now partner Catalyst, as Redrow retreats from the London housing market.
And Amro Partners has acquired two student schemes in Spain and Portugal, boosting its Iberian portfolio by a third to €200m.
The cladding crisis continues, with a group of banks is trying to ease the logjam by paying for fire safety paperwork(£) themselves…
… And Robert Jenrick has been accused of dishonesty(£) by MPs in his own party.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence has been accused of rewriting environmental protection rules to sell off a firing range for housing.
But Jenrick is apparently wild about plans to create a “wild belt”(£), to protect natural habitats.
You need to be on a secret list if you want to buy a nice home in Scotland(£).
The Times (£) takes a trip to see the skyscrapers of Manc-hattan…
… And talks to the “vultures”(£) preying on the UK’s dying shopping centres.
Union leader Len McCluskey(£) could face an investigation into Unite’s spending on a Birmingham conference centre.
A former ice factory in Grimsby’s Kasbah could be thawed out as a 1,400 seat theatre.
And finally – It’s coming home, it’s coming home! No, sadly not football. Football will be taking residence in Italy for the time being. But property investment is coming home(£)! The UK is on track to reclaim its title as the Euro champion for international real estate investment. There, that makes it all feel better, doesn’t it? No? Would you rather just turn the clock back to a more hopeful time, when England was still on the cusp of victory and Gareth’s Gang were definitely going to lift the curse – and the cup? You could try listening to EG Like Sunday Morning and pretending last night never happened. Or, like football, you could just move to Italy(£) for a bit. And come home for the World Cup. Only 497 days to go…
