Good morning,
The Bank of England will spend £65bn buying government debt in a bid to avert an economic crisis. Threadneedle Street has committed to spending £5bn a day for the next 13 weekdays, as the markets continue to reel following the government’s mini-Budget. However, the intervention could escalate as it says it will act “on whatever scale is necessary”.
The pound has rallied following the news, but real estate is still counting the cost. Almost £2.5bn has been wiped off the value of the UK’s biggest REITs since last week’s mini-Budget. Funding deals are suffering, the cost of debt is spiralling and prices are coming down.
The mini-Budget was meant to be a beacon of hope and a boon to business, but everyone EG’s editor has spoken to since Friday has had a touch of rage in their voice, and bewilderment. The domestic market’s loss will be a boon for international buyers, but whether that is a silver lining or just selling the silverware is hard to figure out right now.
Meanwhile, mortgage lenders are asking borrowers to prove they can afford interest rates(£) of 7%, but say they have been buoyed by the bank’s intervention(£).
And experts are now predicting house prices could fall by as much as 20%.
L&G’s chief executive Sir Nigel Wilson has turned down a job serving in Liz Truss’s cabinet. He was offered the role of minister for investment (and a peerage to go with it), but says he wants to focus on the business he has run for more than a decade. Don’t blame him.
St Modwen has hired former InfraRed Capital partner James Cooper to lead a team focusing on logistics acquisitions. It marks another major move by the Blackstone-owned developer into standing assets, with Cooper concentrating on ready-let urban and big-box sheds.
And the health of the nation is slowly but surely getting worse, EG’s recent ESG Breakfast Briefing found. So is it time we added an H to real estate’s ESG agenda?
The government may have brought in an energy price cap, but it is the potential for supply caps that should concern property managers, writes Strettons’ managing director Simon Tilsiter.
Despite the market turmoil, GPE is feeling confident after signing 38 new leases worth more than £10m since the end of June.
Views of Oxford’s dreaming spires have been preserved after campaigners bought a slice of land to the west of the city.
And finally, Donald Trump’s wealth has gone up, by $700m to $3.2bn. And this time it isn’t just him saying that.
