Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG, as well as a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
SoftBank had to pay another $1.5bn to cover WeWork’s rent and debt days before the office-sharing company filed for bankruptcy. It has so far spent around $16bn on its investment.
What do WeWork, LandAid and EG’s ESG Summit have in common? It’s all about legacy, writes EG’s editor.
Home REIT has sold a further 153 properties, at just a third of the price it paid for them.
And delinquent commercial real estate loans at US banks have hit their highest level in a decade. And that level will only get higher, warn experts.
Build-to-rent now accounts for 10% of all UK real estate investment, after a flurry of activity in Q3 took volumes to £448m.
Urban Splash and Places for People have been given the thumbs-up for a fourth phase of development at Park Hill in Sheffield.
And family run life sciences developer and investor Gen Two has been given the nod for a 125,000 sq ft research and development hub in Cambridge.
Meanwhile, Wellcome has appointed Phil Clark as an executive chair to operate its expanded Genome Campus near Cambridge.
And Selfridges co-owner Signa has appointed a new chair to replace René Benko.
The government will speed up planning applications for the electricity infrastructure, as Number 10 says it will back the recommendations made in the Winser review.
But Labour has attacked the government over the “glacial pace” of upgrades to Britain’s draughty housing stock. At the current rate it will take 300 years to hit targets.
Enquiries from would-be buyers, agreed sales and property prices are all still falling, says the RICS, with no sign that the housing market will pick up any time soon.
But there is some good news, as the cheapest two-year mortgage rates fall below 5%.
And more than 200 properties have been removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, thanks to developers and local communities.
In the US, a “tenant from hell” has finally left a Californian Airbnb property after avoiding rent for 570 days.
And Ivanka Trump has shown her dad how you face down a New York courtroom. Not contradicting your own defence is a good start.
And finally, no one hates going to the office more than the Brits. That is the finding of Morgan Stanley’s latest multi-region survey, which found that the UK leads the table for work-from-home days taken. And the number it wants to take. And just how many staff will quit if they don’t get their way. But it seems in response employers have been adding office space, with 52% of Brits reporting that their current workspace is “much bigger” or “a little bigger” than their previous one. Maybe it just seems that way because of all the empty desks?
