Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers.
London’s artificial intelligence boom continues, with companies upsizing their office space at a rapid rate.
The latest firm to go big is PhysicsX, which has signed for a new office in Shoreditch three times the size of its former base.
The company had until recently been based at 67-71 Shoreditch High Street, E1, but has now shifted to two floors at Victoria House, 64 Paul Street, EC2, owned by the Estate Office Shoreditch.
Festival company SXSW London has taken the firm’s former 3,631 sq ft lease on assignment.
Savills said earlier this year that central London had been a notable beneficiary of AI’s growth, with companies upsizing at rates of up to 10 times their existing floorspace as they compete to hire the best talent.
Vincenzo Vedda, chief investment officer at DWS, has said investors’ “lost decade is over”, but has warned that “the risk of negative surprises has increased”.
“If the assumptions of a soft landing and a significant increase in corporate earnings – especially in the US – prove to be wrong, there could be significant negative surprises,” Vedda said in a webinar to discuss the outlook for 2025.
Ulrich von Creytz, chief investment officer for real estate in Europe, added: “We have recently observed a recovery in core real estate, particularly in the residential, logistics and high-quality office sectors.”
However, von Creytz said that although demand for high-quality properties has been on the rise since the second quarter of 2024, lower-quality properties are yet to pick up on this trend.
Fresh into his new job as British Land’s chief financial officer, David Walker is preparing to help steer the REIT’s balance sheet and business into its next stage of growth.
EG caught up with Walker just a few hours into the role and asked for his top priorities as he settled into the new post.
“I see my role principally as providing the financial strength and resilience for the business to allow it to continue to operate nimbly, deploy capital actively and take advantage of opportunities in our markets,” Walker said.
“Is the balance sheet in as strong a place as it possibly can be? Have we got a strong grip on the cost base of the business and the shape and size of the platform within the business? Are we focused relentlessly on cash and cash generation?”
There’s also news on Harworth’s new Birmingham base; Inrev’s estimate of how much it will take to fix Europe’s housing crisis; and more from EG’s recent ESG Summit.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
Grainger reports strong rental growth
Aeon and LND up funding arrangement to £450m
Warehouse REIT nears partial Radway Green disposal
Triple Point portfolio sale held up over funding hunt
Rent reviews boost values for Care REIT
Canadian pension fund appoints former John Lewis boss as head of Europe
Genr8 Kajima cleared to start £130m Huyton redevelopment
EDITOR’S COMMENT: Why completion, not conviction matters
Retrofitting real estate: could do better
New British Land CFO’s to-do list
Harworth signs at Birmingham’s One Colmore Row
Property vs equity: ‘the lost decade is over’
AI company triples Shoreditch office space
Whitbread strengthens London development team with new hire
London’s New Bond Street wins retail rental growth race
Manchester seeks developer for Northern Quarter car park revamp
Lambeth approves 320-bed co-living scheme
Economic headwinds force interim profit fall at Mountview
CEG secures £64.5m loan for eight office-led sites
Crest Nicholson readies for a year of transition
Vistry removes COO role
Europe needs €11.8tn to fix broken housing system, says Inrev
Swiss Life buys second care home for pan-European healthcare fund
Mainly for Students: Flourishing in real estate
More women hired to senior UK fund roles, but top-paid jobs still male dominated (£)
Britain announces plan to boost heat pump uptake (£)
Super-rich are facing a charm offensive to quit Britain (£)
Minister warns on Labour pledge to build 1.5mn new UK homes (£)
HMV suspends store openings after Reeves’s tax raid (£)
John Lewis chief criticises UK Budget as ‘two-handed grab’ from business (£)
Scottish rent controls spark tensions as developers demand ‘assurances’ (£)
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