MORNING NEWS: Revenue flat at flex giant IWG

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals, all perfectly curated to set you up for the day ahead. Flex giant IWG has reported flat revenue in the six months ended 30 June, despite opening more spaces in H1 2024 than in the whole of 2023. Group revenue was $1.8bn – flat on 2023 – while system-wide revenue nudged up by 2% to almost $2.1bn. Despite the muted growth in income, chief executive Mark Dixon remained bullish on the business, playing flex and hybrid working off against the rest of the real estate sector as an industry that “continues to grow”. More evidence that the market certainly is for turning, comes from the latest collection of data on the commercial auctions sector. cPad figures show that the volume and value of sales in the commercial auctions market are rising, with yields showing an underlying downward trend. The latest Acuitus cPad report, which uses sales data from Essential Information Group, shows that Q2 sale volumes reached a record £206.3m – surpassing the previous Q2 peak of £202.3m in 2021 and 70% above the long-run average for the quarter. This brought the total volume of H1 2024 sales of the assets Acuitus tracks to £423.3m, a significant increase on the previous H1 peak of £348m in 2021 and 58% above the long-run average. The weighted cPad All-Property average spot yield is down to 8.53% from a recent peak of 10.17% in Q1 2024, bringing spot yields back to early 2023 levels. Acuitus said this indicated “potential signs of a market turn”, although it warned that it was “still early days and investors are highly selective”.  Elsewhere in the world of real estate, Related Argent has teamed up with Halcyon Development Partners and DTZ Investors’ Folk Co-Living Fund to bring forward more than 300 co-living bedrooms at its £8bn, 180-acre Brent Cross Town development, ARC Oxford science campus has secured oncology firm and University of Oxford spin-out Yellowstone Biosciences as a new tenant, while English Cities Fund has lodged plans to develop 90 Passivhaus homes on a former trading estate site in Salford. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: Group revenue flat at flex giant IWGTarget Healthcare shapes up portfolio to boost rentsCommercial auction volumes hit record high in Q2Mercers’ Company secures flurry of Covent Garden lettingsSyncona-backed oncology start-up picks ARC OxfordBrent Cross Town to get its first co-living developmentOakNorth backs 222-bed Nottingham PBSA schemeFlex provider to transform London Bridge officesLabour ministers go on engagement offensive to get Britain buildingEnglish Cities Fund files plans for 90 Passivhaus homes in SalfordModa’s 462-home Brum scheme to be waved throughHousebuilder Honey proposes sweet 184-home Doncaster schemeNational deals round-upBerkeley wins planning appeal to develop Wiltshire sitePension funds swell L&G Affordable Housing Fund to £280mPrivate equity group Carlyle doubles fundraising to over $12bn (£)China Evergrande liquidators seek $6bn from Hui Ka Yan and colleagues (£)Azeri banker’s wife forfeits £14m Knightsbridge home and golf club (£)