Good morning.
The UK’s biggest REITs are back in buying mode as they attempt to build back better and stronger.
Despite swinging to a loss, Great Portland Estates‘s share price rose yesterday as it reported rising office rental values and a plan to embrace flex space.
GPE will also sink £800m into the development of four new net zero office buildings(£) next year, as it warns that landlords face sitting on stranded assets if they fail to improve B grade(£) office stock.
GPE and Landsec have suffered from the storms of the past 18 months as much as everyone else, writes EG’s editor. But they are very well placed to find the silver lining.
Meanwhile flex specialist x+why has launched two new London workspaces in a deal with the Courteney Group…
… As Central London office lettings rose by 27% in the first quarter. But the 1.6m sq ft leased is still just 54% of the long-term quarterly average…
… And Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom – surely the best-named law firm, ever – looks to leave its Canary Wharf roost for a new perch in 22 Bishopsgate.
Aviva’s £366m property fund(£) will close permanently after trapping investors for 16 months. The fund and its feeders will remain suspended until formal closure on 19 July.
Hammerson has formally exited the retail parks sector with the completion of the £330m sale of its portfolio to Brookfield.
Countryside has pledged to deliver half its housing output – around 5,000 homes – using modern methods of construction by 2025…
… As Peabody signs off a £100m deal to buy the former Ford stamping works in Dagenham.
The stamp duty(£) relief extension has resulted in the fastest house price rise in 14 years. Yorkshire has risen by 14%, but London is up by just 3.7%.
Don’t feel too bad for London’s resi values. Islington(£), for example, has weathered the pandemic very well.
But that could all come tumbling down, with the climate crisis threatening millions of UK homes with subsidence as the ground underneath them shrinks and cracks.
A flying visit to Luton by Elon Musk(£) has fuelled rumours that a UK gigafactory(£) could be back on the agenda.
Aberdeen Standard Investments has sold the freehold of 48-50 St John Street, EC1, to investor Patrizia for £17m.
And fed up farmers(£) could be paid £100,000 to retire under plans for a post-Brexit agriculture settlement.
KKR(£) has agreed a £2bn takeover deal(£) for infrastructure investor John Laing…
… As Carillion’s liquidators(£) secure funding for a £250m lawsuit against its auditor KPMG.
With it’s huge talent base, growing tech sector and countryside to make any Game of Thrones fan drool, could Belfast be the perfect post-Covid city?
The Guardian takes a peak at How We Live Now, an exhibition of work by Matrix – women architects who dared to question a world built for men.
Cirencester’s citizens(£) are up in arms over plans to shut the gates to a park they presumed was public…
… While in Dorset, a lucky housebuyer has discover a ‘lush’ 3.5 acre secret garden(£) hidden behind a mysterious locked door.
And finally, the PM’s renovation nightmares continue. Bad enough that the flat refurb has cost up to £200,000. Worse that poor Boris has had to cough up his own cash for some of it. Potentially fatal that three inquiries have been launched into possible corruption (not that the voters seem to care). But to cap it all off, the ruddy £880 a roll wallpaper won’t stay on the bleedin’ walls, gaarghhh! And it turns out that design diva Lulu Lytle doesn’t give refunds(£) once the precious paper has been cut and pasted.
