All Expert comment articles – Page 4
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NewsThe new WELL rating is a real boon
As we think about the tools required to beat Covid-19, now more than ever our buildings are a critical part of the public health equation. Architects, designers, engineers, facilities managers and other property professionals will be frontline caregivers in the next stage of recovery, but they cannot do it alone. ...
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News
The winds of change are blowing
Persimmon, the UK’s most valuable housebuilder, has long been a hit with shareholders but anathema to politicians, journalists and rivals – who have portrayed the York-based group as synonymous with executive excess, shoddy workmanship and corporate arrogance.
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News
City leaders need power to adapt
My dream job would be mayor of London – but in my dream, I have fully devolved powers like the mayors of New York or Hamburg.
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Online
Propertyshe Perspectives: Retail news and turnover rents, from Fifth Wall to The Fifth Space via the Reimagining Real Estate Virtual Summit, and the climate change emergency
Some of the biggest news this week has been around the retail sector. Unsurprisingly given the current circumstances, the restructuring and job losses continue with iconic department store business Selfridges, announcing that it is shedding 450 jobs, amounting to 14% of its workforce. UK retail institution John Lewis released radical ...
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Insight
Letter from New York
New York City’s gradual awakening from the pandemic has yet to include Midtown Manhattan: the iconic, skyscraper-filled commercial core and nation’s economic powerhouse. The area is hushed and near-funereal in empty Times Square and little-traversed Rockefeller Center.
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Insight
Offices may emerge stronger
There seems to be major angst building over how real estate will respond to seemingly conflicting reports about how productive and safe everybody is at home, versus the time and expense of working from an office.
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News
Property needs clear leadership
I’ve voted Conservative all my life largely because I don’t believe governments run things well – quite the opposite; most nationalised industries were effectively bankrupt before they were privatised.
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News
Now’s the time to fund a regeneration push in UK town centres
We are all focused on a cautious return from lockdown and establishing the ‘new normal’. As recession looms, we should divert our attention to the wider economic impact on our regional towns and cities.
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Insight
Alternative fix for housing crisis
It is no secret that the UK is suffering from one of the worst housing crises in generations.
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Insight
Help to Buy alone is not enough
Green shoots have started to show in the housing market, from an uptick in mortgage enquiries, renewed interest in certain properties such as houses with gardens, and big statements of confidence from major housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey.
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Online
Propertyshe Perspectives: London v New York real estate, more dialogue needed between government and local authorities plus; positive news for Lewisham
I’m getting to know quite a bit about the New York property scene having been invited to join my second New York real estate panel in a week.
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Online
What impact will the pandemic have on property development and the role of environmental insurance?
Environmental insurance has long-been used to unlock brownfield property transactions. The impacts from the recent pandemic have seen a sharp drop in transactional and development activity, but it remains to be seen what longer-term impacts will arise post-Covid-19.
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Online
Coded development
The new RICS “Code for leasing business premises 2020” has generated a good amount of publicity aimed at landlords and tenants. But what does the code mean for developers?
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News
This time REITs are well prepared
“How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly” is a quote from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
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Insight
Letter from New York
New York State governor Andrew Cuomo broke restaurant-lovers’ hearts when he renewed the indoor dining ban that was expected to be lifted on July 20.
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Insight
WFH and offices go hand in hand
In one of his recent podcasts, renowned real estate consultant Antony Slumbers, who coined the term ‘space as a service’ in 2014, described the magnitude of the Covid-19 effect thus: “There will be history books with titles such as ‘The Calamitous Third Week of March 2020’, when (in the UK) ...
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Insight
Why the stamp duty move is still not enough
Looking back in history, whenever the UK economy has faced a recession, the government has always looked to the housing market to stimulate activity – Help to Buy being the effort that followed the 2008 financial crisis.
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Insight
Time for action on cladding crisis
The bravado and bluster from the government has so far not had the desired effect of expediting complex cladding remediation works.
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News
Some home truths about ESG
One positive thing to emerge from the first stage of this coronavirus rewiring is that institutional investors and forward-thinking fund managers have not forgotten previous commitments to environmental, social and corporate governance.
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Online
Britain’s housing need and the role of Build to Rent
The fundamentals of Britain’s planning system have been largely unchanged for almost 70 years.
