Lucy Benyon
- Markets
One for the road
The hospitality industry has taken to the road. Lucy Benyon reports on the hotel and restaurant companies springing up from Lands End to John O'Groats
- Insight
Access all areas
Self-storage is finally taking off as an investment sector in the UK, as entrepreneurs like Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray pile in. Leading the charge is Security Capital-financed Access, with £105m to spend on new sites.
- Insight
Breaking the mould
Britain’s leading developers and architects have thrown their weight behind Property Week’s campaign to rewrite planning guidelines for historic areas. This week we reveal how architects Lord Rogers and Richard MacCormac and lobbyist Richard Coleman want the government to change the rules.
- News
DETR’s delay on rating enrages occupiers
The DETR was expected to make an announcement on the relief – the system of phasing in rises and reductions to ratings bills – by the end of September.
- Insight
Hit the north
The government’s annual survey of regional trends has revealed a huge difference between the prosperity of the north and south. In the second part of our feature on the RDAs’ strategies, Lucy Benyon asks whether the northern agencies will succeed in addressing the disparity
- Insight
Deals on wheels?
Multi-dealership auto parks are the latest way of bringing customers and cars together, but can developers sell the idea to institutional investors?
- Insight
In a rich man’s world
As boardroom members return from their long summer break, the DTI’s attempts to stamp out the excesses of executive pay are back on the agenda. Lucy Benyon reports
- Insight
Working on the chain gang
A year from now and a new power will take control in the capital. In the second of our features on lobbying,this reportdiscovers whether the property industry is ready for the Mayor of London
- Insight
Questions in the house
The property industry's record on lobbying government is poor. Now it must survive in a new political climate, influencing both national and regional government. In the first of two features on lobbying
- Insight
Weighing up the net gains
Not content with building concrete malls, one US real estate company is investing in a virtual mall. Friend or foe, landlords ignore the internet at their peril.
- News
Chamber slams VO's internet assessment
The concern stems from a working party which was set up by the Valuation Office to examine ways of distributing rating lists.
- News
BAA Lynton to lose 50 as company refocuses
Sources close to the company revealed that staff numbers will drop from 75 to 25, as around two-thirds of the workforce prepares to leave the company.
- News
Rating bill forecast to bring flood of appeals
The bill, which passed through the House of Commons last week and is expected to get the thumbs up from the Lords, could lead to substantial business rate increases, as properties will be assessed at their optimum rental value rather than the value occupiers would realistically pay.
- News
Alconbury's rail plans scuppered by council
The developer, a joint venture between BAA Lynton and ProLogis Kingspark, had planned to build a 650,315 sq m (7m sq ft) high-bay warehouse scheme with a railfreight terminal at the Ministry of Defence's RAF Alconbury site near Huntingdon.
- News
Ballymore plans tower for rebuilt South Quay
The Irish developer is due to submit a planning application to Tower Hamlets Council next week for the site at One Millharbour where Builder House – the former home of Property Week – stood before it was destroyed by an IRA bomb in February 1996.
- News
Gooch Webster quick to fill directors’ jobs
Directors Huw Davies and Ben Chambers, associate Clive Wood and graduate surveyor Jonathan Ray will all leave Nelson Bakewell at the start of May to join Gooch Webster’s investment division.
- News
NatWest sells lots to refocus its portfolio
Most of the properties will be sold over a three-year period and will include high-profile central London offices as well as processing centres and branches.
- News
Law change to prompt German fund buying
The Reichstag legislation will allow German funds to take a 51% stake in companies through which they wish to buy property. Funds are, however, prohibited from investing in REITs and companies with more than three properties.
- News
Firms lock horns over SmithKline office site
The 72,461 sq m (779,970 sq ft) scheme came to market at the end of last year after SmithKline gained planning consent for the 5.4ha (13.4 acre) former Samsung site.