Good morning,
A flick through the national newspapers this morning sees the pages understandably dominated by stories about the country’s new prime minister and her plans for the country. Energy bill freezes and her new, diverse (not a single white man in the top four positions) Cabinet fill most of the column inches.
Key among the big changes for real estate is the loss of Greg Clark as levelling up secretary. Clark only ever expected the position to be a caretaking role, but says he was proud of the work he achieved in the eight weeks he was secretary of state.
He has been replaced by former chief secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke.
In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to implement a rent freeze have got the residential property sector’s back up, with the Scottish Property Federation warning that the move could damage investment in to its nascent build-to-rent sector and claiming that Sturgeon’s announcement has already killed one investment.
But it’s not all governmental movement and politics for you to feast on this morning. While the politicians vie for position, real estate cracks on with the day job.
A year after teasing us in an EG Interview that it could be selling its 88,580 sq ft Kaleidoscope office development in Farringdon to a new entrant to the London market, Helical has indeed offloaded the HQ of social media giant TikTok to Chinachem for £158.5m.
The purchase is the first of an “incremental increase” of activity in the UK by Chinachem, so EG has pulled together a handy overview of just who this new investor is and what they might be looking for.
And in Watford, Regal London has got the go-ahead to crown its Clarendon development with two extra floors and bring some 178,000 sq ft of new grade-A space to the Hertfordshire town, while in Bath, Watkin Jones has cut a £100m deal with DWS to bring 316 new BTR homes to the city. The deal is the first for a new pan-European €1bn (£860m) mandate for DWS.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
