News
Pension fund picks York park
Associated British Foods and Marks & Spencer forward-purchase Vangarde Shopping Park in Monks Cross
Select committee hears retail sector woes
Lobby groups call on government to act to help strengthen struggling high streets
Finance & Recovery
Great Portland reports stellar results
£193m development pipeline helps to increase net asset value by 10.7%
General Healthcare spirals towards £700m debt black hole
Hospital operator attempts restructuring of boom-fuelled £2.1bn debt.
US REITs flock to £1.2bn Barchester assets
A debt sale earlier this month has raised the prospect of a battle between a group of huge US REITs for the £1.2bn portfolio of one of the UK’s biggest carehome owners.
MedicX Fund moots merger with rival Assura
MedicX Fund is planning a takeover of rival healthcare company Assura Group which, if successful, would create the largest healthcare property company in the UK
Analysis
Continental rift: UKIP, Europe and property
UKIP and the Tories are leading the country away from Europe. This has serious consequences for property.
UKIP's rise: the property industry reacts
PropertyWeek.com spoke to leading industry figures about the UK Indepednce Party’s property policies.
Focus on Europe will hamper UK recovery
In a recent PropertyWeek.com poll, you were split down the middle - 56% for, 44% against - on whether Britain should stay in the European Union.
UKIP on property
PropertyWeek asked the UK Independence Party’s property spokesman Andrew Charalambous about the party’s policies on property.
Markets
Administrators aim to squeeze £1bn out of Opal sales
Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, PWC and KPMG to sell student group assets.
… as retail rails at rating revaluation delay
The delay in the revaluation of business rates was announced in October 2012 by communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles, who said the decision would “avoid local firms and local shops facing unexpected hikes in their business rate bills over the next five years”.
BCSC to rally landlords against regional ratings crisis …
Portas towns in north-west disproportionately hit by a delay in the business rates revaluation until 2017. Simon Donohue reports
Take three … views on High Speed 2
The north-west will benefit significantly from the HS2 line. While some are arguing that it will become a “brain drain”, luring talent to London, the region must be confident of its offering.
Professional
Property law de Pury and simple
Berwin Leighton Paisner keeps real estate focus as other firms shrink teams. Sarah Townsend reports
Take three … tips on selling to overseas investors
The planned sale of the Lloyd’s building at 1 Lime Street in the City to Chinese life insurance firm Ping An is the latest example of London landmarks being snapped up by overseas investors.
In rights-of-light review, uncertainty may be best policy
The Law Commission’s review of rights-of-light legislation has prompted energetic debate over which of the proposed changes are likely to be adopted.
Surveyors cannot wash their hands of leaky roofs and gutters
The message: Surveyors or architects acting for developers can owe substantial duties to purchasers
Ludgate
Lectern lust heats up BCO
At the BCO conference in Madrid last week, professor David Begg of the campaign for High Speed 2 refused to stand behind the lectern to give his speech for the “Transport and offices — crisis, delusion or the British way?” session.
Yorkshire’s true man
Jonathan Moore, director at Coventry-based Shortland Penn & Moore, has brought it to Ludgate’s attention that his co-director, David Allen, bears an eerie resemblance to the man once named “the greatest living Yorkshireman”…
Knightsbridge up Basil’s Street
Gavin Scott, director of residential developer Simon Scott Homes, decided to recruit John Cleese, aka Basil Fawlty, to help launch a luxury apartment at 28 Lincoln House on Basil Street in Knightsbridge last week.
Comedy night on the Town
Property Week’s professional and legal editor, Sarah Townsend, found herself in humorous company at the BCO conference dinner in Madrid last Thursday night.
