Student accommodation is changing the face of Cardiff’s property landscape with its impact being felt in both the commercial and residential sectors, says a specialist in the field. With thousands of square feet of secondary office space being converted into student accommodation, Caroline Jones (pictured), of property consultancy... Read More
With the latest round of property valuations for business rates purposes underway, businesses are being urged to take care filling in the forms if they want to avoid incurring unnecessary costs. The Valuations Office Agency (VOA) began issuing questionnaires –Forms of Return – to businesses across England and Wales earlier this... Read More
With seven of the world’s ten Formula One teams based in Britain — pumping £10bn each year into the economy — the UK’s motorsport industry has survived the recession relatively unscathed. More than 4,000 smaller commercial and manufacturing companies owe their existence to the sport, accounting for nearly 41,000 jobs. All of... Read More
Sterling Property Ventures and funding partner Long Harbour have unveiled their £100m joint venture development for Birmingham’s Great Charles Place. View of Great Charles Place from St Chad’s Queensway The two-acre site — adjacent to Snow Hill railway station and bounded by Ludgate Hill and Lionel and Livery Streets — is a... Read More
Hay-on-Wye’s 194-year-old Swan Hotel — which has welcomed such guests as Tony Curtis, Seamus Heaney and Alan Alda — has been acquired by Swan@Hay Limited for an undisclosed sum. The sale of the 19-room hotel, which will now undergo a £1.2m refurbishment, was handled by specialist agency Colliers International. Swan@Hay, whose... Read More
The automotive property sector is seeing strong levels of occupier interest coupled with buoyant investment activity, according to research conducted by Knight Frank. The research reveals that there has been an unprecedented level of occupier activity in the fuel and service area sub-sectors during 2015, along with the largest ever... Read More
A report released today highlights why firms in the commercial real estate sector need to speed up investment in technology innovation in order to manage their businesses and assets efficiently. Research conducted by Altus Group - a leading provider of commercial real estate services, software and data solutions - and subsidiary... Read More
In an initiative jointly pioneered with the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), Canary Wharf Contractors' Southbank Place development has been awarded 'Ultra Site' status. Southbank Place is a 1.4 million sq ft mixed-use development at the Shell Centre site on London's South Bank. The central location poses many challenges as the... Read More
Rockspring Property Investment Managers and joint venture partner Générale Continentale Investissements (CGI) have completed the sale of Eden Monceau, a 6,400 sq m (69,000 sq ft) prime central Paris office complex, to REAL I.S. The sale follows the recent letting of the entire building to international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP... Read More
Secure Income REIT has today released its interim results for the first six months of the year, announcing its intention to pay distributions from autumn 2016, following the implementation of new financing arrangements. The specialist long term income REIT put the new financing arrangements, totalling £903 million, in place after 30... Read More
UK focused specialist property real estate investment trust (REIT) Capital & Regional has announced a proposal for a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The proposal, which has now been granted approval, was first hinted at in the company’s interim results released last month and Capital & Regional is... Read More
Rockspring Property Investment Managers has acquired Fairhill Shopping Centre for £45.6m. It is the trust’s fourteenth UK acquisition and its first asset in Northern Ireland. Purchased on behalf of Rockspring’s UK Value 2 LP fund, the 295,000 sq ft retail complex is located north of Ballymena town centre, and 28 miles from... Read More
UK commercial and residential real estate investor and developer, Sunnyday Capital, has announced the acquisition of the long leasehold interest of 94-98 Broadmead and 44-58 Union Street, Bristol for £5.65 million from a private overseas investor, reflecting a net initial yield of 10.80%, Situated in a prime retail position in Bristol... Read More
Valad Europe— one of the continent’s biggest real estate investment managers — has sold three assets from the Dutch Omikron Portfolio for €11.5m (£8.4m). It was appointed to manage and maximise the portfolio earlier this year. Two of the assets are office buildings: Professor E.M. Meijerslaan 5, in Amstelveen a suburb of... Read More
Legal & General has signed a joint venture deal with Cardiff-based developer, Rightacres, to deliver the £400m Central Square masterplan scheme. It’s hoped the 12-acre regeneration project will create at least 10,000 jobs. One of Wales's prime development sites — located immediately to the north of Cardiff's central train... Read More
As Benjamin Franklin famously said, nothing is as certain as death and taxes. But avoiding the pitfalls between the first and the second can be complex and time consuming, according to a leading property expert. “After a death, inheritance tax issues can arise and often the most significant asset in any deceased person’s estate is... Read More
August is traditionally a quiet month for leasing activity. However, according to data from BNP Paribas, take-up in the City of London office market was surprisingly high, totalling an impressive 660,000 sq ft across 37 deals. This brings the total take-up for the year to date to 4.25 million sq ft. The largest transaction of the month... Read More
Unibail-Rodamco, Europe’s leading listed commercial property company, has unveiled plans for what is described as one of the largest developments in Central Europe this year. The scheme will increase the size of established Prague shopping centre Centrum Chodov by over two thirds to 1,079,469 sq ft, transforming it into the leading... Read More
Although many town centres have benefited from a rise in consumer footfall and an ensuing increase in retail spending, the issue of high vacancy rates remains very much a reality for numerous locations nationwide, with business rates often cited as a contributing factor. In Northampton, for example, the number of vacant units in the town... Read More
Property consultancy Bruton Knowles has appointed Optimising IT as its new IT provider on a five-year nationwide contract. Bruton Knowles’ Operations Director Samantha Pennington with Optimising IT Managing Director Gary Smith. Operations Director Samantha Pennington said, “We went through a very thorough selection process before... Read More
Logistics property platform db symmetry has been chosen by Arla Foods as development partner for its Aston Clinton site, near Alylesbury. The surplus land, adjacent to Arla’s recently developed milk processing facility, has outline planning permission for up to 700,000 sq ft of light industrial, manufacturing and warehouse... Read More
A specialist building consultancy has handed over a £5m facility on Tyneside as part of a series of multi-million pound contracts with car parts manufacturer Gestamp Tallent. left to right: James Hall & Joe Prouse both of Howard Russell, Peter Gallone & John Langdon of Gestamp with Richard Farrey of Silverstone inside the newly... Read More
