Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG and a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
British Land is in talks with Sumit Roy’s Realty Income over the sale of £300m of assets. Realty is keen on the £100m Vodafone portfolio, as well as a clutch of retail parks.
Meanwhile, Brookfield is attempting to cobble together a consortium of bidders for its £4bn Center Parcs sale, after receiving no firm offers.
And shares in UK REITs have slipped as investors decide a 15th consecutive interest rates rise will make them too great a risk.
Are workers really returning to the office? Only for about two days a week, says AWA. It predicts a big rationalisation of office space as a result.
Meanwhile rising customer costs are prompting an increasing number of businesses – currently more than a third – to consider selling off property or downsize.
But that’s OK, says The FT (£). Some of the vacant space could be converted into theatres.
Not daunted by the falling share prices, Segro’s chair has upped his stake to £4.17m after buying a further £795,000 of shares in the company.
The Co-operative Bank has struck a £464m deal to buy Sainsbury’s Bank’s mortgage portfolio.
And energy giant Shell has outraged activists again, this time with plans to knock down its brutalist Aberdeen HQ.
Shops in London are struggling to capitalise on a post-Covid uplift in travel, due to the scrapping of VAT-free shopping.
And Britain’s claim to be a science superpower is a “fantasy”, as a leading lobbyist calls out the UK for missing out on investment “pinch-points”.
A dearth of completed PBSA means that many students will have to be housed in hotels, bunk beds or other cities as the new term starts.
Historic England has said the the Crooked House pub should be rebuilt.
And shares in Country Garden have slumped to a record low after the Chinese developer suspended trading in at least ten of its mainland bonds.
Elsewhere, The Times (£) talks to Locale founder Guy Windsor-Lewis about how “desperation and terror” led him to set up the property management software company after his marriage ended.
The FT (£) takes a look at the innovation-focused Investment Zones rising in 12 areas of the UK.
And interviews British architect and Archigram founder Peter Cook (£).
Want to clean up a river? Try building some homes. The Times (£) reports on a scheme in Hampshire, where the approval of up to 1,400 homes has helped clean up the damage caused by 600 pigs.
And finally, the buyer of the Britishvolt gigafactory isn’t just behind on his payments for the Blyth site, he’s behind on his rent, too. Australian businessman David Collard‘s Scale Facilitation and its subsidiary, Recharge Industries, has failed to pay the final instalment of the £8.57m it owes for Britishvolt. But it turns out it is also in hock to its New York landlord. Scale has space on the 88th floor of the One World Trade Center tower, and court filings in New York reveal that Hyper Labs, the landlord of the floor, believes it has been in default on its rent since May, to the tune of $455,000. Meanwhile, Collard is also being chased by the landlord of his Midtown apartment for $150,000 in unpaid rent.
