Good morning. Coffee? Check. Serious, Tuesday game-face? Check. A morning round-up of property news from the national press and EG? Oh yeah.
Savills did rather better last year than anyone was expecting. The firm has said that annual profit will be at the upper end of the £134m to £142m range predicted, thanks to a post-election flurry and strong growth Stateside(£)…
Unlike the housing market in the South East, which Savills says lost £5bn of its value last year.
Meanwhile, Britain’s woeful economic performance in November(£) – 0.3% contraction in the month and just 0.9% growth over the year – has made a cut in interest rates pretty likely(£), with markets pricing in a 50% chance – up from a 5% chance a week ago.
It’s the other rates that have upset Beales, though. The department store chain is stepping up talks with two potential buyers(£), after claiming that the “lunacy” of high business rates left it paying more in rates than rent.
The City Pub Group, which owns pubs in cities, is also grumbling about factors that hurt its performance this year(£). The election was to blame, along with the Rugby World Cup, refurbishment delays, South Western Railways, Brexit, the weather, that late tackle from…
Garden centre chain Dobbies has had a magic Christmas, helping it to boost annual sales by 44%(£). Might have something to do with it doubling in size this year, too.
And Alphabet isn’t complaining. The tech giant and proud parent of Google is on track to join the $1trn company club(£).
It appears the owner of the house that Meghan and Harry stayed in over Christmas is Canadian billionaire Frank Giustra(£), whose company, Lionsgate, produced the Hunger Games. We wonder if the Duke of Sussex is familiar with the films, in which elite privilege comes at the expense of your privacy? We don’t imagine the whole Battle Royale thing happens that much at Sandringham, though.
Brum-brum Brum? Birmingham is planning to ban cars from passing through its city centre(£).
The New York law firm with one of the best names in the business has hired JLL to advise on a potential move. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Maegher & Flom (told you) is currently based in Canary Wharf and is looking for about 120,000sq ft.
And finally, Persimmon’s former boss Jeff Fairburn is back in the housebuilding game(£), after being ditched over that £76m bonus that he promised to give to charity. He is now the chief executive of Yorkshire-based housebuilder Berkeley Deveer, having bought a 50% stake and appointed himself to the role. Wonder where he got the money from? Well, they do say charity begins at home…
