Last week Movehut News reported that celebrities, including actor Hugh Grant, had added their names to a petition calling on Chelsea and Kensington Council to reject plans that would lead to the loss of a Chelsea pub. Now a group of Kingston University architecture students, concerned by the number of the capital’s pubs under threat, has... Read More
Demand for retail space fell again in the last quarter as economic uncertainty continues to depress the market. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) UK Commercial Market Survey, which was released on Friday, shows that take-up of high street premises has now fallen for five consecutive quarters. The three... Read More
London Mayor Boris Johnson has approved a controversial development that will involve the partial demolition of a historic Spitalfields building. The mayor made the decision despite the fact that Tower Hamlets council has twice rejected the application which has been vigorously opposed by a campaign led by TV historian Dan... Read More
Barclays banking chain has faced its fair share of problems in the past year. Only a few months ago, customer trust in the group was shaken to the core by the interest fixing Libor scandal, which led to the replacement of chief executive Bob Diamond by retail banker Antony Jenkins and cost Barclays around £290 million in charges and... Read More
A ruling by the Supreme Court has brought to an end a five year legal battle that threatened the estates of some of the UK’s wealthiest landlords. An unintended loophole in the 2002 Leasehold Reform Act had led to confusion about the distinction between “what might reasonably be called a house” and residential property converted for... Read More
High street retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) has launched a seasonal recruitment drive to take on an additional 20,000 employees across the UK & Republic of Ireland as it continues its festive recruitment drive. Successful applicants will be based in over 500 stores and will take part in a two-day induction training session... Read More
Commercial properties in central London have been a bright spot on the investment map this year, with capital values up by 0.2 per cent in August. According to the CBRE UK Monthly index, although the returns are down from the 0.4 per cent figure in July, they are still considered positive when compared to the -0.7 per cent decline for the... Read More
The commercial real estate markets in the Czech Republic and Romania are not performing well in 2012. The number of transactions is down by over 75 per cent to €542 million in the first three quarters of the year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The Romanian market is flat, with two transactions worth €55 million closing in the... Read More
The Chancellor, George Osborne, may have thought he was on to a winner when he proposed that workers could be asked to exchange employment rights for company shares. However, the plan has been met with a lukewarm response from the business community in general and has now been denounced by Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin... Read More
After a washout summer in terms of sales, retailers are hoping that winter will bring them better fortunes. Due to the wet weather which dominated most of the season, items such as summer clothing, barbecues and outdoor furniture failed to meet expectations even when the current unstable economic situation was taken into... Read More
Amazon, the world’s largest internet retailer, is to pay over $1 billion to secure the purchase of its Seattle headquarters. The price paid to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, for the 1.8 million square feet of office space, is the highest ever paid in Seattle and the biggest single commercial property deal of the year. The deal... Read More
Many students around the country will be gearing up for one of the biggest social events in the university calendar. Carnage is a pub crawl event which allows new students to get to know their new location, enjoy drinks promotions in participating commercial properties and dress up in themed costumes before the intense workload makes most... Read More
A combination of the wettest summer for 100 years and the effect of the Olympics led to the worst trading period “in living memory” for many London attractions, new figures reveal. Some attractions suffered a 60 per cent drop in visitor numbers while shops, restaurants and cafés all experienced a fall in consumer... Read More
There are many office towers up for sale in second-tier cities across the United States, and investors seeking higher levels of return on their investments are responding with great interest. New listings that have recently come onto the market include IDS Center, which has the distinction of being the tallest building in Minneapolis, 1201... Read More
The poor economic conditions in the UK currently are taking their toll on the high street, with multiple chains and independent stores posting poor sales, profit warnings and even administration announcements on an almost weekly basis. Most recently, sporting goods retailer JJB Sports announced the failure of the chain to remain profitable,... Read More
Commercial property investors looking to invest in Saudi Arabia have a sense of optimism that makes perfect sense, given the encouraging developments that have been happening in the country. In February 2011, King Abdullah made a major announcement that the country would increase spending by $130 billion. The cabinet approved... Read More
With the recession easing slightly and inflation finally coming under control, consumers are loosening the purse strings and beginning to spend again. However, value for money is still at the forefront of the mind of the average shopper, meaning that stores with own brand ranges are seeing profits rise and these items becoming ever more... Read More
The difficulties faced by the licensed trade have been widely documented. Currently pubs in the UK are closing at a rate variously reported as being between 12 and 50 a week. The online Lost Pubs Project lists over 21,000 public houses that have closed their doors for good. The reasons for this are largely attributed to high levels of... Read More
A £2 billion theme park on the scale of Disneyland Paris is expected to create more than 27,000 jobs in Kent. The huge development is on an 872 acre plot of brownfield land between Dartford and Gravesend and is provisionally scheduled to open in 2018. A consortium of companies, collectively known as London Resort Company... Read More
Proposals designed to ensure banks are protected from the potential risks of property lending could have a negative impact on the UK commercial property market, it has been claimed. A simulation by analysts Investment Property Databank (IPD) found that the proposed rule known as ‘slotting’ could “exacerbate economic... Read More
US builders spent more on new home construction in August, which was good news for those hoping for a rebound in the housing market. The increase did not offset the cuts in commercial real estate and public projects, however. Construction spending was down by 0.7 per cent that month from July, according to the Commerce Department. This... Read More
Experts have warned ministers that the SNP's plans for a new property tax poses a risk to the economy. This measure may dissuade companies and business people who are considering moving to Scotland. The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) may mean the cost of opening up a large operation in Scotland as opposed to... Read More
