Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers.
Our big interview this week is with Natasha Guerra, founder of flexible office operator Runway East. Over the past decade Guerra has built a company that will next year deliver £30m in revenue and an EBITDA of £4.5m, with a portfolio of 12 buildings in Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham and London, including its latest site at London Bridge.
Making flex profitable is not an easy business, she says, and Runway East has to be on point with the spaces and places it chooses.
“For us, the challenge is finding the right locations where we think the numbers stack up. There is a plethora of operators that are willing to take sites on numbers we don’t think make sense,” she says.
“Maybe I will find out that they know something I don’t, but at this point in my career, I’m doubting it.”
A booming London market and a string of major events, including the Taylor Swift tour, have boosted the performance of European hotels, and investment in the sector has reached its highest level since the pre-pandemic era.
Cushman & Wakefield tracked €11.6bn (£9.8bn) of deals across the continent during the first half of this year, the highest six-month total since 2019.
Jon Hubbard, Cushman’s EMEA head of hospitality, said: “The trading performance of European hotels experienced a ‘Taylor Swift bounce’ in the first half of this year, with high customer demand partly linked to the major events that took place across the continent, such as the Euro 2024 tournament and Swift’s Eras tour.”
A property industry group is calling on the government to make safety and accessibility for women and girls integral to planning policy reform, development and housing delivery.
The group of architects, planners, councillors, urbanists, academics and developers wrote to the prime minister this month to alert him to the “critical need for adopting a gender-sensitive approach” if the government’s ambitions for growth across the UK are to be realised.
“All developments should reflect the diverse needs of their users, including the specific requirements of women in the design and planning process,” the group’s letter said.
There’s also news on an approval for Renaker’s five residential towers in Manchester, one of which will become the tallest in the city; Savills’ new role driving Bill’s Restaurants’ search for new UK sites; and a push from shareholders for the removal of PRS REIT’s chairman and a strategic review of the business.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
How Runway East took off in the high-flying world of flex
Home REIT sells 101 more properties
Regional REIT switches investment manager
High five as Renaker’s £540m Manchester towers cleared
Manchester Piccadilly bank-to-hotel conversion gets the nod
Gaw’s 52-storey Docklands resi tower faces further delay
UBS and Tungsten sign two new tenants at Leeds logistics park
Bridge Properties adds tenant to Warrington’s Element
Sainsbury’s buys 10 Homebase stores in growth drive
Starmer urged to embed gender-inclusive design in planning reform
Savills to drive Bill’s Restaurants UK expansion plans
‘Taylor Swift bounce’ helps European hotel investment to five-year high
PRS REIT shareholders want chairman out
Indurant gets the nod for 432,000 sq ft Lichfield logistics park
CBRE appoints new head of flex
Staff will be granted right to demand four-day week (£)
Australian mining boss wants to hold staff ‘captive all day long’ (£)
‘Baffling’ affordable housing rules will wreck Rayner’s building plans, says Barratt executive (£)
Chinese offices emptier than during Covid pandemic as slowdown hits (£)
Business confidence holds steady at eight-year high (£)
Shoppers shrug off riots to boost high streets (£)
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