City of London

The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) has revealed the six teams vying to design a pop-up “eco-home pavilion” in London’s Square Mile. The contest backed by the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects (WCCA) aims to raise awareness of how advanced architectural technologies can reduce the environmental impact of construction and provide prototype solutions for building future homes.

City AM reports that The City of London has voted to designate Simpson’s Tavern – a historic bar and restaurant recently threatened with closure – an asset of community value at a meeting last Thursday. The Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee voted unanimously in favour of the historic property in Cornhill which was founded in 1757. The move means that Simpsons, which has been closed since last October, cannot be sold without first giving the local community the opportunity to bid for the building. Committee Chairman Chris Hayward said the institution’s “long history” and “status at the heart of the community […] must now be taken into account in any decision over its future”.

City of Westminster

The Times reports that profits at Soho Estates have risen sixfold over the last year, despite a 16% fall in its rental income. The family run property group – which owns around 60 of Soho’s 87 acres – reported pre-tax profits of £108.9 million this year, up £19 million from 2021. The hike is thought to have been largely driven by an £88 million rise in the company’s portfolio valuation which now sits at £1.16 billion. The biggest driver of the increase is Ilona Rose House, which was completed in the summer and is set to welcome tenants including Warner Bros and Skyscanner in the new year. The news comes despite a £5.8 million fall in the estate’s rental income from £35.3 to £29.5 million, which the company said reflected the rent-free periods it afforded some tenants during the pandemic.

Property Week reports that The Fattal Group has completed its purchase of London’s The Dilly Hotel from Archer Hotel Capital. Fattal, the owner of Leonardo Hotels UK & Ireland, plans to spend £90 million on upgrading the property at 21 Piccadilly, which it purchased as part of a £346 million fund in partnership with institutional investors. The 283-room hotel was originally opened as The Picadilly Hotel in 1908, and will join Leonardo Hotels’ collection across the capital, including properties at London City, Tower Bridge, St Paul’s and the NYX Hotel London Holborn.

Property Week reports that logistics property owner and developer Prologis has leased a 5,000 sqft office in Soho as its new London headquarters. The move comes as the company  continues its servicing and development of 22 so-called Prologis Parks across the capital. Regional head of Prologis UK Paul Weston said that the Soho office will allow the company “to have a strong foothold in the area where we are focusing a lot of our commercial attention”.

Property Week reports that London-based retail property consultancy Harper Dennis Hobbs has rebranded as Newmark. The business, which has its UK headquarters at 84 Grosvenor Street in Mayfair, provides real estate advisory services for luxury and high-street retailers in the UK and overseas. Newmark Group, who acquired the business in 2019, said that the rebrand would “seamlessly represent the company’s global retail practice and further elevate client service.”

Hackney

Savills reports that Asian supermarket Tian Tian Market has acquired a 3,647 sqft unit on the ground-floor of prime mixed-use development The Arc in Shoreditch. The store is set to open in 2023 and will become the brand’s seventh London location. The Arc is a 22 storey development near Old Street station offering 340,000 sq ft of mixed use space, including 100 residential apartments, 150,000 sq ft of office space and 10,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space. It was built by developer Ghemlaco in conjunction with architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

Property Week reports that a set of 32 workshops in Shoreditch sold for £3.85 million at Savills’ second November auction. The grade II listed property on Swanfield Street close to Shoreditch High Street overground station was marked as “of interest to investors and developers” and fetched £100,000 over the guide price set by the auctioneer. The auction raised £32 million, taking Savills’ yearly total thus far to more than £420 million, although a a number of high value lots including a mixed-use residential property in Clerkenwell remained unsold.

Hammersmith & Fulham

Property Week reports that Hammersmith and Fulham Council have approved a proposal from developer General Projects to convert Elms House, an empty 1930s building at 43 Brook Road, into a 120,000 sqft office hub. The building, a former base for food manufacturer J Lyons & Co and EMI records, will be refurbished and extended under proposals which General Projects and architects Buckley Gary Yeoman claim will save 9,500 tonnes of carbon emissions. Construction is due to start in autumn 2023 and will include the creation of new office space, a rooftop pavilion, three more storeys on top of an adjacent loading bay and new green roof terraces.

Islington

Property Week reports that Islington Council has secured planning permission to build 72 homes in a net zero carbon scheme at Vorley Road in Archway. The scheme, designed by architect Levitt Bernstein and expected to begin construction in 2023, will feature 51% social rent homes alongside community facilities including a medical centre and a new home for Archway Library. There will also be public realm improvements to the streetscape and the local park and play area. Diarmaid Ward, executive member for housing and development at Islington council, said that the 37 new homes “will provide fantastic housing for families in desperate need in the face of London’s housing crisis”.

Developer Endurance Land and architect Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) have unveiled early plans for an 160m office tower by Old Street roundabout. The proposed development at 99 City Road would involve the demolition of 37% of the existing 10-storey office block to create an approximately 37-storey tower providing an additional 45,000m² of office space. Proposals also include improved public realm and 510m² of flexible community space – including a triple-height ‘great room’, which could hold markets, exhibitions, and performances. Consultation documents said the proposal was an “elegant and well-proportioned” design “rooted in the distinct history of the local areas”. A planning application is expected to be submitted to Islington Council early next year.

Southwark

The Architect’s Journal reports that developer Matching Green have completed the 111-unit Dockley Apartments development in Bermondsey. The mixed-use scheme on Dockley Road comprises private, shared ownership and social housing apartments with shops, restaurants and wholesalers at ground level and in the neighbouring railway arches. The building was designed by studio Woodruffe Papa in conjunction with Poggi Architecture. 80% of the residential units have already been sold.

EG reports that LondonMetric have bought Cantium Retail Park for a reported £38 million. The 68,000 sqft property which sits on a five-acre plot on Old Kent Road has existing planning permission for 1,100 new residential apartments. LondonMetric purchased the property from an open-ended property fund, with a £19million share of the acquisition cost, reflecting an initial yield cost of 5.4% which will rise to 5.7% upon the completion of short-term asset management initiatives. The company has also extended the weighted average unexpired lease term on the site and increased the annual rent by 54% from £1.4m to £2.1m, with 85% of the income subject to contractual rent reviews.

General

The Financial Times reports that new environmental regulations combined with the impact of the pandemic could leave acres of office space worth hundreds of billions redundant. According to Savills, three-quarters of the UK office market currently falls below the minimum energy efficiency standards planned to be implemented by 2030, with the estimated cost of required upgrades at around £40 per sqft, on top of normal refurbishment costs. From April next year, it will become illegal to let out office space with an energy performance grade of F or G, a measure which estate agents estimate will leave 5-10% of UK offices redundant. This minimum standard is set to rise to a C rating by 2027 and a B rating by 2030, a grade which 70% of London offices currently fall short of. The FT also found that higher interest rates are compromising the green agenda in new builds, with a recent study by Deloitte finding just 36% of London office developers confident of achieving net zero in new developments by 2030.

EG reports that flexible office group WeWork is to lose two of its heads of real estate. Patrick Nelson – head of international real estate – is understood to be leaving next year, following the departure of UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa retail estate head David Kaiser this month. The departures follow third-quarter results posted last month which showed a £516.5 million loss and revealed plans to close 40 “underperforming” locations in the US. Nelson joined WeWork as vice-president of real estate in 2013, while Kaiser joined in 2017 as a director in the real estate team. He is now expected to launch a new flexible office operator with Dan Cohen who formerly set up flex operator purpose group. The two departures are unrelated.

Property Week reports that real estate is forecasted to remain high on investors’ wish lists despite the Bank of England’s interest hike. The Bank of England’s base rate increase by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5% is the highest in 14 years, but statements by several leading property investors and real estate financiers suggest it will do little do deter interest in the sector. Representatives from Shojim, Puma Property and Beaufort Capital Management have all stated that whilst circumstances are challenging the current climate does not pose anything like the chaos brought by the 2008 crash. However, some experts have said that investors’ attraction to property may wane in the short term in 2023. Oli Creasey, property research analyst at investment manager Quilter Cheviot, said: “Investors have seen property as an income generator, with potential capital upside  and the repricing of risk-free rates will inevitably have a profound impact on property values.”