The impact of banking losses on property loans were a highlight in EGi’s blogs this week.
In the new property finance blog, Mike Phillips says the industry seems worried by the UK government’s Asset Protection Scheme and its implications for the property sector.
“With the APS, the worry is that losses on loans are likely to be much steeper than the first loss piece that banks have to stump up for themselves, so once the government is paying the insurance, there is no incentive for the bank to keep the loan on its balance sheet – just flog it at the market price and reduce the balance sheet,” writes Phillips.
In other EGi blogs, Peter Bill toured around the Fletcher Priest-designed Watermark Place in Upper Thames Street following Nomura’s 525,000 sq ft letting.
Bill writes that Knight Frank’s Chris Vydra said he thought the letting to the Japanese Bank was the largest of an already-built block the City had ever seen.
Christian Metcalfe’s property law blog featured a post that mayor of London Boris Johnson has written to the government threatening to take legal action after it “reneged” on promises to fund homes in the capital.
Metcalfe writes that the mayor issued a statement alleging the government was ignoring London’s “acute” need for more new homes after cutting the capital’s share of the affordable housing budget and diverting funds to regions with “comparatively less need to meet national short-term build targets”.
And finally, Paul Norman’s Olympics blog features a story that appeared in Estates Gazette last week that Seattle-based residential manager Pinnacle is in talks to partner insurance giant Aviva and agent CB Richard Ellis in their proposed £1bn private-rented residential fund.
Click here for a full list of EGi blogs
nathan.cross@rbi.co.uk
