Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin with the latest news and views from EG, plus a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
Two of Home REIT’s tenants have entered liquidation in a further blow to the troubled business. Between them the tenants account for 12% of rents. The news comes as the REIT announces plans to move its focus away from homelessness, and acknowledges that it has collected just 7% of Q2 rents.
Cushman & Wakefield’s new chief executive Michelle MacKay, who recently stepped into “Big John” Forrester’s shoes, has a simple ambition: to “significantly” improve the business and build on the firm’s “solid core”. “We’ve got great bones here, and a clear opportunity to excel,” she tells EG.
JLL has fully embraced AI, unveiling JLL GPT – its own purpose-built large language model for the commercial real estate industry. The bespoke generative artificial intelligence model will be used by the agency’s workforce of more than 103,000 internationally.
The case for innovation districts has been a compelling one for years, writes Arcadis principal Maja Nesdale. But how they have evolved holds the key to creating some truly smart cities.
Kier Property has won planning for a 104,000 sq ft warehouse at its Bracknell site.
The UK needs to build more prisons as official figures show space to jail criminals will run out in three years.
In resi news, Vistry Group is set for a showdown with shareholders over a policy that could double its chief executive’s annual bonus.
While an attempt by the Duke of Northumberland to build homes on the allotments of his west London estate is simply an effort to line his “already deep pockets”, a public inquiry has heard.
House prices have fallen by 3.8% over the past 12 months, the largest year-on-year drop recorded since the global financial crisis in July 2009.
And the threat of a further rate rise this week hasn’t stopped three more large UK lenders’ plans to cut mortgage rates this week.
Questions have been raised over whether the EPC regime has any teeth, as it is revealed that Kensington & Chelsea has not handed out a single fine to rental properties that fall below EPC E in five years.
Hub’s low-carbon arm, HubCap, has submitted plans to convert a “functionally obsolete” office-led site at Ludgate Hill, EC4, into a 35-bedroom aparthotel.
But the government’s focus on ownership and “beauty” risks missing opportunities, writes Hub MD Damien Sharkey. We should be focused on sustainability and delivery.
The Telegraph (£) looks at the conundrum the Conservative Party faces – how do you build more homes, without upsetting nimby voters?
Meanwhile, Scotland’s crackdown on short-term lets(£) – aka Airbnb – has left many landlords fearing for their future.
And Labour is planning to strip away tax loopholes for second homes if it forms a government.
Further afield, the world’s most famous property developer, Donald J Trump, has been indicted again. But it is to do with his side-hustle as former US president, so no need to cover that here!
And finally, Boris Johnson has been told he mustn’t go digging up the past or disturb the lizards*. No, this isn’t some Icke-ian conspiracy, but the reason the former PM can’t build a pool at his £3.8m Cotswolds manor. Apparently the great crested newts he railed against in 2020 are in residence, and archeologists have also said that further development would damage the remains of a 12th century siege castle that lies beneath his backyard. So much for Project Speed.
*amphibians, actually.
