Peter Bill
Peter Bill is a former property editor, journalist, columnist for the Evening Standard from 2007-15 and author of Planet Property. You can follow him on Twitter @peterproperty
OnlineSouth Bank showdown
Last month, Michael Gove deployed his Section 31 powers again – this time to stop the demolition of the ITV Studios on the South Bank. His actions have threatened to chill relations with the property industry and heated up the debate on what counts as carbon-saving development. Peter Bill reports
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Offices: abandon hope values
Abandon hope value, all ye who seek to double or treble the size of your office block.
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Beware of Mike the Merciless
Mike the Merciless has been in action again. Last month, Michael Gove stun-gunned housebuilders into shelling out for cladding repairs.
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Time to un-trap blighted blocks
It may seem churlish to ask Michael Gove to execute two further initiatives in favour of leaseholders trapped in blighted blocks. After all, look below at what the housing secretary has accomplished this month.
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Sadiq Khan must open door to builders
London mayor Sadiq Khan would rather sup with the devil than a developer, even though the latter might be able to help with a looming political liability: namely broken promises on affordable housing delivery.
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Pinch from planning registers
A tip for smaller landlords facing the forbidding prospect of spending £200/sq ft rejuvenating elderly office blocks in order to merit mandatory Energy Performance Rating ‘B’ by 2030.
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Looking forward has more value
Duodecimals allowed the ‘taker off’ to calculate area by multiplying feet and inches by feet and inches, measured by ivory scale rule off paper plans.
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RICS calls for primary valuation mechanism to shift off DCF method
A RICS report has called for the ‘primary mechanism’ for valuing real estate to shift from estimating the ‘exchange price’ to values based on future income calculated using discounted cashflow (DCF).
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Airing tricky questions on gender
Last week a male principal at a public sector user of property services publicly admonished an agent for fielding an all-male team when pitching for work.
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Planet Property is turning green
The age-old development model rests on the bedrock of being able to build back better – and the bigger the better. But this assumption is being undermined by climate change concerns, amplified by COP26 this month.
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Time to peer into Pandora’s box
Do you recall the Pandora Papers? A box opened on 3 October to reveal the names of those who owned at least 1,500 UK properties worth £4bn.
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A look back at the life of Centre Point's Harry Hyams
Peter Bill reappraises the life of Centre Point’s Harry Hyams, a man more interested in collecting than developing. Those who knew the real Harry talk of the man once vilified as ‘the Howard Hughes of Property’.
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Three items of AOB for the RICS
There are three items of ‘any other business’ before the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors fully embarks on Agenda for Change 2.0.
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Levitt’ll set RICS change agenda
Five members of the RICS Governing Council (GC) are absorbing a 400-page report by Alison Levitt QC on the circumstances surrounding the sacking of four members of the institution’s management board in November 2019. This steering group will issue directions to the ruling body’s other 21 members.
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From cold war to homes front
Urban & Civic intends to double in size over the next five years. In January, the master-developer, founded by Nigel Hugill and Robin Butler in 2009, was bought for £506m by the Wellcome Trust. Peter Pereira Gray runs the trust’s £32bn portfolio, which gained 12.9% in value last year.
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Bringing some sunshine into retail
A Pharmacy2U vaccination centre popped up last week in a former Laura Ashley store in the Fremlin Walk shopping centre in Maidstone. The signage is pop-up, not permanent. But some feel an injection of outpatient treatment centres into shopping centres could inoculate some stores against death by Amazon.
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Planning Bill won’t change a thing
To start, a diatribe on the dogma endangering the Planning Bill proposed in the Queen’s Speech last week.
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Marketing won’t save the planet
George Orwell said: “The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” Yes, and for others to read them. Everyone in real estate treats everyone else in the game as foolish, at least when it comes to trumpeting projects.
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I spy tenants for the Millbank refurbishment
A decade into a debate on ways to restore the Palace of Westminster, the grand and good greyheads in charge will be gratified to learn the passage of time has opened up a new decant option. Room enough for 1,500 displaced parliamentary staff will become available at 7 Millbank in ...
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Will this be the year the IPSX idea floats?
PrimeLocation was launched in 2001 after nearly 200 agents, including Savills and Knight Frank, raised £11m to fund one of those new-fangled websites.
