All articles by David Lawson – Page 9
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OnlineTourism real estate
The temptation of buying a place in the sun is huge but caution should be exercised, says David Lawson
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OnlineTourism real estate
Now is the time to cast your net wider in the search for foreign investment
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OnlineAuctions: northern companies threaten London’s dominance
The top dozen firms in the auctions industry, all based in and around London, sold more than £2.7bn worth of property last year, the National Property Auction Index has revealed. Allsop accounted for almost a third of this. The top 12’s sales represents most of the takings, but involved ...
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OnlineAuctions: commercial sales soar while resi feels the pinch
An air of gloom hung over the start of 2005. Interest rates were rising, buy-to-let had gone off the boil, house prices were levelling and commercial rents stubbornly refused to rise. Auctioneers began to nervously consider cancelling summer holidays. They still are, but not because there might be problems footing ...
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OnlineAuctions: the bid to take British market conditions overseas
Soaring prices and dwindling supply are driving private investors far beyond their usual stamping grounds to hunt for property in locations they can hardly spell, let alone trace on a map.
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OnlineAuctions: not a dumping ground for unwanted property
You have decided that all the fuss about soaring auction returns and crowded salesrooms means this might be a way to get rid of that shop or flat that no one seems to want. Forget it. There is a widely held belief that auctions are the dumping ground for rubbish. ...
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OnlinePlanning: developers pay up for cash-strapped councils
Planning fees jumped sharply in April, taking costs for a large scheme as high as £50,000.
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OnlinePlanning: new system looks set to fall at first hurdle
The upheaval in planning has probably generated more debate than any of the reforms that have convulsed development controls every few years since the modern system was born half a century ago. The determination to ‘get things right this time’ has stretched the process through two governments, several planning ministers, ...
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Planning: communication is the way to co-operation
Why is it so difficult to get anything built in this country? Because planning authorities are so nit-picking, of course.
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OnlinePlanning: environmental impact assessments are unavoidable
Every few years the government grabs the planning system by the scruff of the neck, shakes it harshly and sends it back into the world as a lean, mean governing machine, freed of accumulated red tape. Yet before the ink has dried on the latest redraft, delays and frustration are ...
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OnlineFinance: identifying property investment vehicles
It is rare to open the financial pages nowadays and not find that somebody, somewhere has launched a new property vehicle.
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NewsAn odd favourite
Property derivatives, which offer an easy way to bet on the sector’s performance, are back in fashion.
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OnlineFinance: breaking down the terms needed for property investment
What is a derivative? Most property professionals probably don’t care, let alone know. They leave that kind of gobbledegook to the financial geeks. But as sophisticated new investors swarm into the industry, they will have to get used to a new vocabulary. Here is a taste of what to expect. ...
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OnlineFinance: how property changed from a bricks to banking business
One successful provincial developer is renowned as such an expert at detecting when markets are weakening that he keeps a boat provisioned to sail away until economic winds start to turn back in the right direction.
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OnlineEnvironmental services: the great unknown of energy regulationsat unknown of energy regulations
Lawyers have a wonderful talent for covering clients’ backsides. It’s why they are paid so well. But Luke Bennett, who specialises in environmental law for Nabarro Nathanson, knows he will be lost for an answer to one question from the property monitoring committee of a big institutional client. That question ...
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OnlineEnvironmental services: the cost of contamination
Tough new environmental controls are being pushed on to the backburner as the country dives into a general election. Deadlines for measures such as energy labelling of buildings and finding space to store electrical goods for recycling have slipped as ministers plead lack of time and resources. But they will ...
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Environmental services: the hidden dangers in our cities
Is Sheffield about to disappear into the bowels of hell? Is Bristol, set among the rolling Green hills of the west, really the most polluted city in the UK? It certainly appears so in the first comprehensive map of environmental risks faced by Britain’s 10 largest cities. Landmark Information ...
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OnlineEnvironmental services: reducing energy costs
Gas and electricity prices are soaring and water charges will follow as OFWAT approves increases to pay for wholesale replacement of leaky pipes and collapsing sewers. The era when service charges were practically ignored in calculating property costs is over. Many landlords remain unmoved, locked in the attitude of disdain ...
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Environmental services: changing the accepted view of green issues
Who cares about saving the world? Not the average occupier. Any agent will tell you the last thing that occupiers consider is how much carbon dioxide will float off from their buildings to stimulate a future environmental catastrophe.
