Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals, all perfectly curated to set you up for the week ahead.
The Labour Party conference kicked off in Liverpool on Sunday with a flurry of announcements impacting the real estate community.
The “brownfield passports” mooted in the consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework, responses to which close tomorrow night, were launched with the government asking for evidence to start building its policies. The passports, says Labour, will help accelerate building in urban areas through providing greater clarity on the principle, scale and form of brownfield development.
BPF chief executive Melanie Leech welcomed the proposals. “Brownfield development is complex and the ‘passports’ concept represents a huge opportunity to support the government’s ambitions for more housing and growth, while at the same time breathing new life into our towns and cities,” she said. “Making use of existing land and infrastructure also makes perfect sense in a world where sustainability is vital.”
Elsewhere, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has inked deals for four new devolution deals and promised to prioritise Northern areas in the next wave. She has signed off on agreements for regional mayors in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull & East Yorkshire, and to establish combined county authorities in both Devon & Torbay and Lancashire.
“This is only the first step of our major ambition to drive forward our devolution revolution, and ensure we empower more communities and strengthen the existing powers of our brilliant mayors,” she said.
Norfolk County Council and Suffolk County Council, which had been promised devolution deals under the previous administration, however, have had that promise quashed as Labour reconsiders the mayoral single local authority model of devolution.
And consultation on a decent homes standard and new qualification for anyone working in the provision of housing for the vulnerable is also set to be launched “as soon as possible”, says Labour, as it seeks to ensure safe and secure housing for all.
A flurry of announcements is expected as the conference gets into full swing, some new, some repurposed, no doubt.
In more traditional real estate news, Real Estate Investors, the Midlands-focused company led by Paul Bassi, has said it will consider any corporate or portfolio deal it sees as being in the best interest of shareholders as it seeks to accelerate its disposal strategy. The group is selling assets to pay down its circa £45m debt, the cost of which has surged from 3.7% to 6.5% since 30 June 2023.
The build-to-rent market continues to grow as another pension fund seeks to plough cash into the sector. Nest, the UK pension scheme managing some £43bn of assets, has teamed up with L&G and Dutch pension fund PGGM to join its ADP partnership. Together the trio are seeking to build a circa £1bn BTR portfolio, delivering thousands of new rental homes across the UK.
Murdoch-backed Aussie listings business REA Group has upped its offer for Rightmove from £5.4bn to £6.1bn as it continues to extol the virtues of a combined group. Its chief executive Owen Wilson is urging the Rightmove board to engage rather than bat away its offer as “wholly opportunistic” again.
“We live in a world of intensifying competition and this proposed transaction would bring together two highly complementary digital property businesses for investment and growth,” said Wilson.
While residential is likely to be the most talked about topic this week, forming much of the headlines coming out of the Labour conference in Liverpool, EG knows there is more to real estate than just beds. In this week’s EG news agenda, we’ll be looking out for the latest from Life Science REIT as it updates on its performance so far this year, plus a flurry of planning permissions – or refusals – from across the UK’s planning authorities.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
Midlands-based investor ‘open to offers’ as it prepares for market uplift
EG’s news agenda: What to look out for this week
Nest, L&G and PGGM partner for £1bn BTR push
Rayner signs off four new devolution deals
Labour launches ‘brownfield passports’ to accelerate development
Murdoch-backed REA ups offer for Rightmove
Crown splashes £19m on Northumberland estate
Indoor karting specialist races into Braehead
Blackstone offloads hotels business for $525m
Consultation launches on decent rental homes standard
COMMENT: Real estate for all – including the less privileged
Housing market bounces back as first-time buyers return (£)
Pubs ‘face double whammy of tax rises’ (£)
Four million homes could be built on green belt in Rayner’s planning revolution (£)
Why a Tory-led council wants Starmer to be bolder on planning reform (£)
HSBC hit by sixfold surge in Hong Kong property loan defaults (£)
Big UK investors poised to buy the dip ins US property (£)
The new wave of mega data centres coming to a town near you (£)
The forgotten families who have to live in old office blocks (£)
UK retail sales rise to two-year high in August (£)
Civil service wants to keep staff in office three days a week (£)
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