Good morning. While you sip that second mimosa – gosh, your Valentine treats you right, eh? – have a look at these property stories from the national press and EG.
The morning papers are awash with news and views about yesterday’s reshuffle. But to get down to the bits that really matter, have a look here…
And housing gets its 11th minister in ten years, to a chorus of ‘meh, whatever’ from the industry.
Then again, a Cabinet reshuffle could be exactly what the industry needs, writes EG’s editor…
And here’s what the FT (£), The Times (£), The Telegraph (£) and The Guardian think about yesterday’s reshuffle.
While you are brushing up on all that political stuff, keep an eye on intu’s share price. Yesterday’s fall of 4.5% puts it at 12.7p a share, giving it a market cap of about £180m. How low before some decides it is ripe for a takeover?
The Times (£), meanwhile, has a little more on Westfield’s decision to “significantly postpone” €3bn of its development pipeline, including its jv with Hammerson for a new mall in Croydon.
And Marks & Spencer has announced that it will close two distribution centres, one in Derbyshire and the other in Sheffield. It will now operate from just six hubs.
Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos has just spent a record $165m on a house(£) in LA. Well to be fair, it is a nine-acre estate that used to belong to Jack Warner. And it makes previous record holder Lachlan Murdoch’s $150m purchase look cheap. The Guardian points out that for the same price Bezos could have bought 518 flats in Barking and Dagenham.
Meanwhile, the Church of England is being urged to sell its vicarages(£), as one rector points out that living in a seven-bedroom mansion doesn’t exactly endear you to your flock.
We wonder what the new Chancellor will make of this proposal… Two highly respected scientists are convinced that the only thing to stop climate change from flooding most of the east of England and much of north west Europe is a damn big dam(£). Or rather, two. One stretching from Norway to Scotland, the other from the south west of England to France. At a cost of just £200bn to £400bn to prevent the submerging of most of the UK, it does seem rather better value than HS2…
And finally, Persimmon has to be congratulated for its local knowledge at its Whitewood Park development in the Bristol suburb of Speedwell. Apparently one of the streets is to be named Cheers Drive. If they aren’t planning a bus stop, they’ve missed a trick.
