Good morning. Here’s your round-up of real estate-related headlines to start the day, including some things you may have missed over the long weekend.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for government efficiency, is expected this week to reveal plans for the sale of £1.5bn of government offices in central London (£).
He told The Telegraph: “We have seen over the last year that expensive office space in central London has been under-utilised. Why should the taxpayer be made to fork out for half-empty buildings?”
It won’t be too hard for any new owner to find new tenants if CBRE is right – the agency says a “surge in demand” from London occupiers has “clearly challenged” (£) a narrative that lettings would drop as a result of post-pandemic strategies.
There’s less in the way of good news in the retail market, little surprise given the latest predictions from Goldman Sachs that recession will hit the UK in the coming quarter.
The trade association representing some 70% of the UK’s corner shops has warned of mass closures unless the government supports businesses in the face of rising energy costs.
And big names are of course struggling too. Cineworld has been hit with a winding-up petition (£) from the landlord of its Picturehouse cinema in London’s Piccadilly, while a deal that could see Next take a £15m stake in Joules has been thrown into doubt after the latter’s profit warning.
As a new academic year nears, students starting at several UK universities have been told there are no rooms (£) available for them in university halls.
First-year undergraduates at the University of Glasgow, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of the West of England in Bristol must find their own rooms. At UWE, students were offered accommodation in Newport, an hour away from the main Bristol campus.
And finally, Richard Caring, owner of the Ivy restaurant chain, has been given permission to close a main road in London’s South Kensington so that he can plant dozens of trees in the grounds of his mansion. The move means four local bus routes are being diverted, as are ambulances and other vehicles needing to access two nearby hospitals. Local resident David Erb told The Guardian that the council was “acquiescing to the whims of a billionaire who wants a nice garden”.
Enjoy the day.
