Good morning.
St James’s Place and Columbia Threadneedle have become the first asset managers to unfreeze their property funds(£), after an RICS panel recommended a removal of warnings of “material valuation uncertainty”(£) yesterday.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on £5bn of deals in a crucial few weeks(£) for the City office market.
Appetite seems high, despite the uncertainty caused by the lack of staff at their desks, which has flatlined since June(£).
Goldman Sachs has told its 38,000 staff to return to the office(£). If they want to. And in shifts(£).
JLL, meanwhile, has begun a consultation process to make around 200 UK roles redundant.
Capco has exchanged contracts to sell an island site in the south-east corner of Covent Garden to The Portfolio Club for £76.5m. The jv between APG and London Central Portfolio will redevelop the block as a hotel.
Cale Street Investments has taken a full stake in intu Derby. Savills and former Capital & Regional exec director Ken Ford will run the centre.
Capital & Regional was property’s top faller on the stock exchange yesterday as the FTSE 100 nudged up.
Conversations about diversity and inclusivity seem more authentic this year, says EG’s editor. Is the industry finally holding the mirror up to itself?
Pizza Hut plans to close 29 restaurants(£) as part of a CVA to reduce its £23m pa rent bill(£).
New Look is putting pressure on its landlords to accept the terms of its CVA(£), saying the alternatives would be far worse.
And new figures show that nearly 125,000 retail jobs have been lost in the UK so far this year, with as many as 13,867 shops closing permanently.
Tiffany is suing LMVH(£), claiming that its $16bn suitor(£) has been “running out the clock”(£).
Meanwhile some of the world’s top luxury brands have pulled out of a Hong Kong shopping district(£) as the pandemic and political unrest crush sales.
Prices for homes with gardens(£) have reached a four year high(£) as people seek somewhere that’s green.
But the headline figures are hiding an increasingly polarised market, says The FT (£).
And hundreds of homes have been destroyed by fast-moving fires in the Pacific north-west.
And finally, Scotland’s largest landowner may have had the last word in self-isolation and staycations. Anders Holch Povlsen, who is claimed by both Denmark and Scotland as their richest man, wants to build six ‘futuristic’ bothies(£) in the remote wildernesses of his vast Scottish estates. Visitors will have to use a map and a compass to find the two person shelters, and will have to take their rubbish back home with them. But once in the off-grid Scandi-style structures they will be spoilt for hot showers, log fires and stunning views. No use for WFH, though. The bothies will will have no access to the internet.
