Good morning.
SoftBank has handed over almost $450m to WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann(£), as it clears the decks(£) before a second IPO attempt.
No wonder technologywithin director Richard Morris feels the need to warn of the risks, as well as the rewards, of flex.
And what will the post-pandemic office look like? Tune in to the Future of Work podcast to find out.
LondonMetric boss Andrew Jones has criticised rivals who say they see opportunities in retail(£). “People who talk about [repositioning retail properties] are those who tend to have a load of retail they don’t know what else to do with.” Ouch.
Savills shares have risen to their highest level since before the first lockdown, after the agency said it will sell a 25% stake in its investment management arm to Samsung Life for £63.75m. The Korean insurer has committed an initial $1bn to co-invest(£) in the real estate equity business over the next four years.
The £87.5m sale of intu’s former HQ at 40 Broadway, SW1, has been pulled by Tellon Capital. It now fancies doing the redevelopment itself.
More BTR news as Pension Insurance Corporation agrees a second, £90m forward funding deal for an Art Deco scheme next to the Hoover Building in Ealing…
… and DS2 beefs up its BTR advisory team.
HS2, meanwhile, will go ahead, will reach Leeds(£) and could be completed early, vows transport secretary Grant Shapps.
But will there be any money left to fix England’s crumbling schools? The repair bill has risen to more than £11bn, nearly double previous estimates.
Tui has sold its 49% stake in a Spanish hotels group(£) to jv partner RIU, for a total consideration of €670m.
The FT (£) takes a look at Monaco’s land reclamation project, which will cost €2bn to provide just 125 homes.
Careful where you park – Rome has become the sinkhole capital of Europe(£), with more than 100 holes appearing every year.
And a mansion in Minnesota has gone on the market for $15m, featuring parking fit for a Batmobile(£).
Richard Hammond is facing a heritage backlash over plans to extend his 15th century home(£). They should be happy the former Top Gear presenter isn’t trying to strap a rocket to it.
And finally, Agatha Christie’s former home in the Oxfordshire town of Wallingford could become a mystery museum. A group of locals have banded together to attempt to buy Winterbrook House(£), which went on the market last month at £2.75m. The Christie-cabal has cracking crime credentials – it is being led by Wallingford’s mayor Marcus Harris, who starred as Julian in the 1970’s TV series of The Famous Five. The real mystery is whether Christie would want her home to become a place of pilgrimage. Although she lived there for 42 years – and bumped off hundreds of fictional victims within its walls – she kept a remarkably low profile. Locals knew her only as “that shy housewife Mrs Mallowan”.
