Good morning.
Apache Capital is to develop its first, £160m housing scheme, at the University of Cambridge’s Eddington site. The scheme will be built under the banner of its new £1.6bn company, Present Made.
Trouble at mill? Apparently quite the opposite. Hundreds of vacant or under-used mills in the North could be refurbished to provide 42,000 homes or 2.3m sq ft of offices, according to a new report.
And sorry seems to be the hardest word for the RICS, notes EG’s editor. Two weeks ago it promised an apology to the non-execs it wrongly dismissed, but so far there has been silence.
No wonder young people are feeling disillusioned by a career in real estate. But, EG’s editor adds: don’t give up on us yet.
The fallout from the Evergrande crisis could topple the Chinese property market(£). “The whole Chinese property market is on stilts”, says the short seller who predicted the collapse of Enron.
But global markets rallied yesterday(£) after Evergrande pledged to make a key £26m interest payment(£) on its $300bn debt. (It said nothing about the $83m also due today, or the $47m due next week.)
Meanwhile, The FT (£) asks: what would China’s biggest-ever debt restructuring look like? And how will it effect other developers?
Vistry’s shares rose higher yesterday on news that it had paid £215m for a 96.5-acre site(£) in Devon.
Foreign investment(£) in the UK is too focused on London(£) and the southeast to help with “levelling up”, MPs have said.
And finally, it is good to know that housing is a clear priority for this government. Indeed, it seems to be all that the holders of the great offices of state are interested in. No, we don’t mean Govey – Levelling Up Stuff isn’t quite a great office of state, yet. No, this is the feud between new foreign secretary Liz Truss and her predecessor Dominic Raab. Apparently, Dom is refusing to relinquish the 3000-acre grace-and-favour Chevening estate, which is traditionally used by the Foreign Secretary to entertain visiting dignitaries. Truss says his claim on the Kent pad is “ridiculous”(£), but Raab insists that, as deputy PM – his consolation prize for being demoted – he has a right to use at least some of the 115 rooms. Nick Clegg did! Surely, with 115 rooms, you could house the lot of them there and they’d be none the wiser. Even Govey. Apparently he’s looking for somewhere to stay.
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