Good morning.
Lloyds Banking Group(£) has let slip the scale of its housing ambitions. It plans to dwarf current leader Grainger by the end of 2025 and own 50,000 homes by the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, house prices(£) have hit record levels(£), again, rising 13.2% over the year to June.
Housebuilders are benefitting, and none more so than Redrow, which posted property’s biggest gain yesterday. Takeover rumours(£) added more than 7% to its share price. “Complete news to us!” Redrow CFO Barbara Richmond told the team. “I am on holiday and [chief executive] Matthew [Pratt] is on his way to the races. That tells you everything.”
Balfour Beatty(£) has said it will no longer take on central London resi jobs, claiming that developers had made the capital a “no profit zone”(£) for contractors.
And Savills’ former resi development head, Dominic Grace, has joined Austrian proptech firm Propster.
Nottingham has given the green light to Godwin Development’s 692-bed student scheme at the Bendigo Building.
But it sounds like more student schemes are needed in Bristol(£). The university has said it may have to house students in the bath. Sorry, in Bath.
Expecting landlords and tenants to thrash out a deal for the £6.4bn of unpaid rent is not acceptable, says The FT (£). The time has come for the government to actually do something.
Elsewhere, Croydon’s legacy of doomed retail schemes mustn’t put investors off the city, writes EG’s editor. But the focus needs to be less on big shiny buildings and more on proper town management.
And finally, authorities in Sardinia are urging a clampdown on tourists taking souvenirs back from their holidays. Specifically, sand. Apparently more than six tonnes of Sardinia’s sand(£) – including the rare pink stuff from Budelli beach – has gone missing over the past year. Campaigners believe it is being taken back to liven up aquariums. But there is another explanation – perhaps this is some enterprising contractor’s way of getting around the building supplies shortage? If you see any pink concrete, you’ll know we were right.
