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.
GPE has made hires and promotions in its flexible office division as it pushes ahead with plans to double its portfolio to more than 1m sq ft.
The group has hired Felicity Roocke as head of workspaces design and delivery, Chris Stokes as head of customer experience and Trevor Phyo as senior development manager.
“Our mission is to be the London property company that ‘owns’ experience, and [the new hires’] collective skills will be instrumental in delivering our best-in-class workspaces across the capital,” said chief financial and operating officer Nick Sanderson. “With our customers’ needs constantly evolving, it is important we reflect the right changes within our team structure to ensure we hit our target of delivering more than 1m sq ft of flex space in central London, while also maintaining our market leading net promoter score.”
If you’re in the world of residential development and believe that developing up is one of the best ways to provide density, then make sure to steer clear of Griff Rhys Jones. The comedian and president of the Victorian Society doesn’t mince his words in his support of a new report from think tank Policy Exchange, which is calling for a mandatory public vote on all tall buildings over 60m.
Policy Exchange claims that towers are not a solution to the housing crisis and that there should be a permission-in-principle created for mid-rise alternatives.
While Rhys Jones slams high-rise residential development as “driven by greed” claiming “no inherent logic in reaching for the sky”, the residential industry has an altogether different stance.
“They are not suited to every location,” says Brendan Geraghty, chief executive of the Association for Rental Living, “but they are a legitimate source of homes in many urban areas and are a popular choice for those seeking an urban lifestyle.”
He adds: “Tall buildings are not unplanned and go through a very rigorous due diligence through the planning process to establish their viability on social, economic and environmental criteria.”
Tough reading from the latest Begbies Traynor Red Flag Alert, with the number of property businesses grappling with “critical” financial distress surging by nearly 37% in Q1.
Begbies Traynor flagged upticks in the construction, real estate, financial services and support services sectors as “particularly concerning” as nearly half (around 20,000 businesses) of the companies in “critical” financial distress were in those sectors.
“Despite some optimism as we entered the new year, 2024 has so far been characterised by a continuation of the same pressures that plagued companies in the UK throughout 2023,” said Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer.
This week could start to show whether that “plague” of 2023, with depressed capital markets figures, really has continued into the first three months of 2024, as the major listed agencies start to report their earnings. Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers and CBRE will all release Q1 figures this week.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
GPE makes trio of flex hires in 1m sq ft drive
Supermarket REIT makes French debut with €75.3m Carrefour portfolio
Leap in number of real estate firms in distress
Tall buildings should be put to mandatory public vote, urges think tank
Resi conversion planned for historic Brum site
COMMENT: How mass timber has thrown real estate a carbon lifeline
Cycle to MIPIM 2024: What riding 1,500km for charity really means
Levelling up policy like a half-built cathedral, admits Gove (£)
Boss in Persimmon pay outcry at risk of wipeout in new venture (£)
Construction skills shortage ‘could hit infrastructure projects’ (£)
Warren Buffett’s real estate brokerage to pay $250m over commission lawsuits (£)
Travelodge owner in talks to buy £40m of hotels from landlords (£)
Harvey Nichols owner pumps in another £25m (£)
How Britain banished bookies from its high streets (£)
Cravath joins Midtown exodus with move to Manhattan’s Hudson Yards (£)
Calstrs reveals problem calculating carbon footprint of its $331bn portfolio (£)
Chinese property shares lead market rebound as optimism rises (£)
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