Property Week reports that a Hong Kong buyer has completed its acquisition of Charles Russell Speechlys’ headquarters at 5 Fleet Place for £191m at a net initial yield of around 4% – four months after Property Week revealed it had gone under offer on the building. Hong Kong-based Manhattan Garments Group bought the London office building from Chinese real estate investor Poly Global via the acquisition of a Jersey-based SPV. A part of the Fleet Place Estate, 5 Fleet Place comprises a 130,500 sq ft building built by British Land in 2007 which has been the headquarters of law firm Charles Russell Speechlys ever since. Poly Global acquired the building from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in January 2016 and has since deployed £4m towards the refurbishment of the lower part of the property.

Property Week reports that Property consultancy Vail Williams has relocated its London headquarters from Cavendish Square, Marylebone, to bigger offices in Noel Street, Soho. The firm has taken on a new flexible five-year lease in a move which it said will “meet its quickly growing presence in London”. Vail Williams has launched a regional recruitment drive on the back of the office move, seeking new staff to “drive the business forward as it continues its hybrid 3-2 work arrangement”. James Lacey, Vail Williams’ London regional managing partner, said: “We are expanding, coming out of a temporary home into a bigger office in a more central and bustling location just minutes from Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road. “It’s where the businesses are – we now closer to many clients – and we are using this relocation as a springboard to launch the next phase of the planned evolution of our region.

Property Week reports that Marc Jacobs is making a return to London, opening a new flagship store on Regent Street, Property Week can reveal. The luxury fashion retailer will open the site at 106-112 Regent Street, Soho – the former site of Canadian brand Moose Knuckles. Moose Knuckles had operated the store on a temporary ‘pop-up’ basis. Marc Jacobs previously had a physical store in the capital at 24-25 Mount Street in West London but shuttered the site in 2018.

Estates Gazette reports that Dragons’ Den star Touker Suleyman has sold a former aristocratic residence turned-office building in Fitzrovia to Randox Laboratories, for £29m. Randox, which develops tests and services for personalised medicine, plans to comprehensively refurbish the building (pictured) for occupation as a new London headquarters and Institute of Personalised Medicine. The freehold block contains just under 21,000 sq ft of office space and comes with planning consent for a change of use to educational purposes. British-Turkish Cypriot fashion entrepreneur Suleyman’s company, Low Profile Holdings, appointed Savills to sell Boston House, a Grade I listed block on Fitzroy Square, W1, earlier this year.

Property Week reports that Investment giant Aviva Investors and Canada’s PSP Investments have committed to making 30 Golden Square, an office building in central London’s Soho district, less carbon intensive in its forthcoming refurbishment. Aviva Investors said the plans, in partnership with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, formed part of its ongoing commitment to decarbonise buildings in its portfolio. Both parties are working together on an investment portfolio across London and the CB1 Estate mixed-use development in Cambridge. The refurbishment of 30 Golden Square, which provides 40,000 sq ft of office space, will include the creation of a two-storey roof extension and three communal roof terrace spaces.

Retail Gazette reports that Sadiq Khan is reconsidering plans to demolish Marks & Spencer’s flagship store on Oxford Street after backlash from the public. City Hall has said the proposals to demolish the site will be reviewed after it initially said it did not want to intervene with the plans. In January, architect Simon Sturgis wrote a report arguing that knocking down the building was inconsistent with tackling the climate crisis.

The Times reports that the company behind some of London’s top luxury hotels has appointed joint chief executives as part of a shake-up. Maybourne, which owns Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley in London, has named Marc Socker and Gianluca Muzzi as joint-chief executives with immediate effect. The hotels group has been run by Paddy McKillen, the Irish property tycoon, through a management contract and that continues until the end of the year.

Property Week reports that more UK housebuilders have signed up to the government’s voluntary building safety pledge, committing developers to paying to remove dangerous cladding on lower-height buildings, with Barratt Developments the latest to sign. Berkeley, Taylor Wimpey, Redrow, Gleeson and now Barratt are the latest to agree to housing secretary Michael Gove’s deal to pay for fire safety remediation costs related to buildings between 11m and 18m in height, going back 30 years. Five of the top 10 British builders have now signed up, but a total of 53 companies have reportedly been asked by the government to make commitments. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) had set a deadline of 5 April for housebuilders to sign the pledge, threatening commercial and financial consequences for those that did not.

Property Week reports that Housebuilding giant Redrow has raised its provision to remedy fire issues to £200m, becoming yet another developer to sign up to the Government’s voluntary building safety pledge. Redrow joins Persimmon, Crest Nicholson and other housebuilders who have signed the pledge, which commits developers to funding the remediation of life-critical fire safety issues on buildings over 11m with which they had any involvement in the development, going back 30 years. Redrow has not been a major constructor of high-rise apartments. The majority of its high-rise apartment schemes were built between 2000 and 2010 as a response to the Governments Planning Policy Guidance 3 which encouraged high density living.

Property Week reports that Newmark Group has acquired London-based real estate advisory firm BH2, which will now operate as Newmark BH2. The firm, which has brokered the sale of London landmarks including The Gherkin, will continue to operate under the lead of Tony Gibbon. Gibbon joins with his partners Dan Roberts, Sam Boreham and Rupert Williams. The news confirms speculation last year that suggested that BH2 was in talks to merge with the US group to form a real estate advisory business. Barry Gosin, chief executive at Newmark, said: “Bringing on Tony, whose name is synonymous with London’s institutional real estate market – one of the world’s largest and most influential – accelerates Newmark’s global growth and unified approach to driving client opportunities.”

City A.M. reports that Prime London rent hits double-digit growth for first time since 2010. The priciest areas to rent in London have seen double-digit annual rental growth for the first time in more than a decade. According to figures released by Savills, growth in prime London hit 11.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year, against a backdrop of low stock levels. It is the first time rental growth has reached this level since September 2010. Prime London covers the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and parts of the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Camden. Soaring demand for London rental space has meant rental prices for both houses and flats in the capital are above pre-pandemic levels.