Good morning,
An increasing number of surveyors are spotting signs of a market downturn. According to a recent RICS survey, some 43% sensed the market is entering the early stages of a downturn. The results are a stark contrast to the 53% in Q1 who felt the market was in the early to middle stages of an upturn.
Meanwhile, investment in London offices has hit a decade low, despite an uptick in take-up. Investment topped just over £1.5bn in Q2, a fall of 60% from Q1 and almost 45% down from the previous year.
But don’t worry, there is some good news. And not just about the Lionesses.
After months of carefully weighing up and whittling down entries, the EG Awards shortlist can finally be revealed! Are you one of the 150 brilliant individuals and companies in the running?
But while there can only be 21 winners, the many hundreds of entries show that this industry is a sector that is bringing about change in our built environment, writes EG’s editor. A sector that cares about the places and spaces it develops and occupies, and that wants to do better. A sector that can do better. A sector that is doing better. Now to find the right pair of shoes…
Six key industry membership organisations from across the built environment have laid out their plan of action to improve diversity and inclusion across the sector. The plan will impact the 350,000 members of the Chartered Institute of Building, Institution of Civil Engineers, Landscape Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Royal Town Planning Institute, and follows on from the memorandum of understanding signed in April.
China’s government is upping its efforts to save its buckling property sector. Beijing will hand out $30bn in loans in the hopes of leveraging $148bn to complete stalled property developments across the country.
Meanwhile, Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, has put its Hong Kong HQ on the market with a price tag of HK$9bn, or $1.15bn.
And Asia’s richest woman has lost half of her $24bn fortune in the China property crisis. Yang Huiyan, a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden, saw her net worth plunge by more than 52% over the year to $11.3bn. But she is still, just, the richest woman in Asia.
M&G’s chief investment officer, Jack Daniels, is leaving the company after more than two decades.
And Cadogan has hired business improvement district pioneer Giles Semper as head of place.
The Duke of Northumberland has been accused of “starving” and “bullying” allotment holders from their plots in a bitter planning row. It’s like something from Downton Abbey!
But if you are more of an Archers fan, The Times (£) has a suitably Ambridgian tale of hay bales, leylandii and nasty neighbours.
Paragon Banking Group has reassured the City that there is no stress in buy-to-let.
And Brad Pitt has broken local price records in Carmel, California, by paying $40m for a bungalow.
And finally, it is hard not to be impressed by the newly released images of The Line, Saudi Arabia’s planned future-city near the Gulf of Aqaba. Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, is not wrong when he calls it “a radical change in urban planning”. The pictures show a 170km long, half a kilometre high and 200m wide mirrored behemoth, slicing through the Arabian desert, while inside a sci-fi cityscape will house 9m people. It has been dubbed the Death Star with hanging gardens or Bladerunner with boats… But will it ever actually get built? Or will it remain more science fiction than real estate fact?
