Proposed Leasehold & Freehold Bill Valuation proposals – a viewpoint. Whenever a Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers the annual budget, it is often best to avoid the excitement of the day and look at the detail the following morning when the dust has settled. The same could be said of the recent King’s Speech when […]
Emea
Rent controls have failed everywhere – and Edinburgh is no different
There is a saying about economists – that if you put ten of them in a room, you will get 11 opinions. Consensus amongst economists is reserved only for the most obvious, well-evidenced truisms. Yet, in a survey of 41 American professors of economics, only one had anything positive to say about rent controls. So why do […]
Why converting office space into flats won’t solve the housing crisis
The UK government is proposing to further relax planning rules as part of its long-term plan for housing. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities aims to extend what are known as “permitted development rights” (PDR) in England. This would widen a previous relaxation of planning rules to encourage developers and builders to convert empty commercial spaces […]
Wonks have been warning about the housing crisis for decades – so why has nothing been done?
Last month, the Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, Robert Colvile, tweeted about a CPS publication from 1990 which was far ahead of its time: NIMBYism – The Disease And The Cure by Richard Ehrman. Although written in the early stages of (what we now call) Britain’s housing crisis, the author already demonstrated a much better […]
We quizzed 4,000 people on the economy – here’s who knew the most
People in the UK say the economy and inflation are currently the most important issues facing the country. But do Britons actually know much about how the economy works? My colleagues, Dan Kenealy and Hayley Bennett, and I used a survey to study public attitudes and knowledge about the UK economy and politics. We analysed the responses of more […]
M&S Oxford Street: A bullet dodged?
When it comes to the planned redevelopment of its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, Marks & Spencer is not taking Michael Gove’s intervention lying down. Many years ago, I was having lunch with a London office agent who mentioned in passing that he’d just been appointed on a new office development on Oxford Street. […]
‘You’ve got bricks, I’d love a brick!’ – why house building is an existential issue for the Conservative Party
My generation is set to be the first in 100 years to be poorer than our parents, yet we have a political system that funnels money into the hands of the old. The most obvious, and perhaps most egregious manifestation of this is the triple lock on pensions. Spending on pensions is expected to balloon […]
Listed real estate companies not yet ready for the CSRD
More and more real estate funds are reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their annual reports, because investors consider the non-financial performance of these funds to be important. To map this development, BDO has analysed the ESG reporting by listed real estate companies in their FY2022 annual reports. The analysis shows that […]
Five reasons why European CRE isn’t out of the woods yet
Recent European valuations data from MSCI for Q2 confirmed that capital values are still falling, but at a slower pace than they were last winter. This raises the question as to whether we have reached a turning point in this downturn. Our view is that European commercial real estate (CRE) is not out of the woods yet, despite things […]
The speakable truth about housing
I enjoy reading good journalism, whether it chimes with my political view or not. Sometimes, however, I wonder whether I am reading something which is deliberately misleading – “we send the EU £350 million a week – let’s fund our NHS instead” – or just plain ignorant. Like many others, I also worry about irrational […]