The UK construction sector is showing signs of a strong recovery, with growth in July 2024 marking its most significant surge in over two years. This positive momentum follows a period of uncertainty caused by economic challenges and a changing political landscape, but it seems optimism has been revived, particularly following the Labour government’s announcement…

The landscape of Britain’s commercial property market has dramatically shifted following the pandemic, leading to the decline of long-established giants like British Land and Land Securities in favour of more agile and specialised companies focusing on logistics and industrial assets. British Land and Land Securities were once synonymous with some of the UK’s most iconic…

The office development sector has hit a significant slowdown, with new projects reaching their lowest level since the financial crisis. High construction costs, increasing borrowing expenses, and the ongoing shift toward remote work have heavily impacted developers’ willingness to start new office projects. According to analytics group CoStar, from April to June 2024, less than…

The shift away from the standard model of office working has only solidified since COVID, with much of the UK’s workforce now taking back control as to where, how and when they undertake their jobs. This increased expectation for flexibility has led many business owners to reassess their needs for leased office or retail space…

When any property developer creates a new development the developer and designers are creating their new dream for that location. I am sure this is why many architects become developers as they can use their skills to create a new persona for a location. Developments in many ways are all about selling the dream, this…

The Deloitte London Crane Survey has once again revealed that commercial property developers are showing a propensity to renovate existing offices instead of constructing new ones as they seek to meet occupier demand for eco-friendly buildings whilst navigating the slow planning system and tightening green legislation. The latest issue of the bi-annual survey has highlighted…

Developers, please remember there is an emotional cost as well as a financial cost to bad property transactions. I sat down recently for coffee with a developer, and it struck me that, in addition to the financial cost, there is a high emotional cost to a badly run property transaction. In this case the developer…

When the Control of Horses Act 2015 (the Act) was enacted, it was estimated that there were up to 3000 horses unlawfully grazing on land not owned by their owners. Whilst some of these horses had simply been abandoned, others were involved in ‘fly-grazing’, a term used for grazing horses on private or public lands.…

The importance the law places on upholding Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) should never be underestimated, as North Northampton Council and developers Stanton Cross LLP found to their detriment recently, when the High Court found that 16 ancient lime trees had been unlawfully felled to prepare for the expansion of an access road. Despite a Tree…

Security of tenure for a commercial business tenant brings with it a lot of additional rights, so understanding when a tenant has security of tenure is important but cannot always be established just by looking at a situation head on. Sometime a little deeper digging is required. Recently we had a situation where a tenant…