Good morning,
A quarter of London’s commercial buildings will be legally unlettable from April, according to a study by BNP PRE. The study, which closely echoes EG’s own findings last year , says the MEES legislative changes will render 24% of inner London’s commercial stock “unlawful for new lettings and unlawful to let”.
HSBC is looking for half the space for its new HQ when it moves from 8 Canada Square, E14.
And government departments are due to spend £24bn less than the Treasury budgeted for last October, partly due to a £2.4bn underspend by the Levelling Up Department.
Meanwhile, Barratt Development’s chair, John Allan, has publicly supported Labour’s plan to “deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7”.
Saudi real estate business DarGlobal will become London’s first main market listing of 2023. It is planning a direct listing to raise $72m, valuing the company at $600m.
The Times (£) takes another dive into the murky waters surrounding Home REIT.
And looks at the councils that bet big on commercial property(£) and regretted it.
Pocket Living has secured a new £100m senior debt package with Lloyds Bank. The developer said the facility would help it to build more affordable homes, specifically for London’s first-time buyers.
And Reef has been granted planning for its £500m plan to replace Stevenage’s former TK Maxx with 450,000 sq ft of lab space.
The value of the UK’s housing stock reached a record £8.68tn last year. Savills says this is a “high watermark” and expects a fall this year.
As the HBF warns that the number of houses built in the UK could slump to its lowest level since World War Two. It blames the government’s “capitulation” to the nimby lobby and “short-term political decisions to appease” backbench Conservative MPs.
And overseas buyers of London’s prime residential property are on the wane, down from 55% in 2018 to just 39%. But the tech bros of Silicon Valley still seem keen.
Jigsaw is looking to piece together its high street presence, with plans to open up to 20 new stores just two years after closing 30.
This week’s EG Like Sunday Morning looks at the £8bn Earls Court masterplan, Aldi’s plans for London’s offices and a brace of big-money BTR schemes.
And finally, if you thought Stephen Schwarzman’s bumper $1.1bn earnings for 2021 were eyewatering, look away now. The Blackstone co-founder and CEO earned a record $1.27bn in 2022 – that’s 272 times the annual earnings of the average FTSE 100 boss.
