All Expert comment articles – Page 22
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Online
Q&A: LandAid chief executive Paul Morrish on pro bono opportunities
LandAid chief exec Paul Morrish discusses pro bono opportunities in this week’s Q A.
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Insight
Builders left bitter by share slide
“We announced fantastic results, our order book went up strongly, we increased the land bank and our net cash position soared. And guess what? Our shares went down.”
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Insight
We mustn’t cast graduates aside
When I started work in this great property business in the 1960s, I had the best possible start to my career. I joined Moss Partners, one of the most active firms in London’s West End at the time, owned by Lewis and Derrick Moss. It specialised in the ...
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Online
The fate of statues under the new National Planning Policy Framework
On 20 July, MHCLG published its latest revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
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Online
New Use Class E to Residential: A gamechanger or damp squib?
As part of Project Speed, the government’s post-pandemic recovery agenda, a new Commercial, Business and Service classification, Use Class E was introduced to reduce red tape and planning bureaucracy for minor and incidental change of use planning applications.
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Insight
Offices will not suffer like retail
It only took ecommerce penetration to reach 15% in the UK to ultimately reduce the value of retail real estate by more than one third between 2018 and 2020.
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Insight
Private equity makes a supermarket sweep
Buses – wait for ages then three come along at once. Such is the case with the interest shown by CD R, Apollo and Fortress in Morrisons, an equity that has been sidelined in price terms for a sustained period.
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Insight
Tough times for British Land and Landsec
We read REITs’ reports and accounts from back to front for those interesting notes tucked away. This year, both Landsec’s and British Land’s reports include new data on portfolio energy performance.
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Insight
The time is right for ‘brandlords’
The flexible workspace market is still growing apace, but it’s not just flexspace and co-working operators that are fuelling supply. Landlords and commercial property investment groups are also investing in flexspace brands, side-stepping partnerships with existing operators to take a DIY approach.
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Insight
Business leaders must act fast to ease office-return fears
The announcement by the prime minister that work-from-home guidance would be lifted on 19 July was met with a sense of optimism by business leaders and property owners, who since March 2020 have faced uncertainty around workforce operations and tenancies.
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Insight
The property sector is more nuanced than ever
For decades, the Baby Boomer generation has been able to navigate its way using the property stars, but the trusted constellations seem unusually displaced right now.
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Insight
It’s time to tackle fit-out carbon
In boardrooms across the country, real or virtual, the word ‘sustainability’ is bouncing around like a pinball, interspersed with other words like ‘commitment’, ‘zero’ and ‘Paris’.
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Insight
Boris failed to show leadership
I know nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, but in my time in parliament I served two prime ministers who I looked up to.
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Insight
Staycations will boost the West End
Six months ago, I reported on what a difficult year it had been for retail and hospitality, particularly in city centres.
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Insight
What we can expect from COP26
COP26 – the global climate summit being held in November this year – will be a defining moment for humanity.
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Online
Complying with vacant possession conditions
The Court of Appeal recently grappled with the issue of vacant possession when terminating a commercial lease in Capitol Park Leeds Plc v Global Radio Services [2021] EWCA Civ 995.
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Online
How to ride the wave of investment into life sciences
A source of global hope during the pandemic has been the life sciences sector, which has moved with incredible speed to produce vaccines. The sector’s ways of working and its real estate requirements are changing just as swiftly, with a number of existing trends in life sciences now being accelerated ...
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Online
Japanese knotweed: identification and treatment can help solve a knotty problem for the housing market
The presence of Japanese knotweed can a deal-breaker but is the bad press out of proportion?
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Online
Overcoming the legal and regulatory challenges of proptech
The real estate industry is experiencing a widespread digital transformation and is seeing the tangible benefits of adopting technology. New innovations are appearing all the time and there is no doubt that proptech is at the heart of this digital revolution.
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Insight
Let’s be in teams, not on Teams
There have been many stop-starts, but 15 months on from the first lockdown, the office – a collaborative space for experts to strategise, create and innovate – has finally been placed on the ‘green list‘. From 19 July, technology will help guide us back to a new and upgraded working ...