On Thursday 31 January, BNP Paribas hosted its annual “Capitalise: Prospects for Property” seminar. On a crisp London winter morning, hundreds flooded into the National Gallery to hear expert views on the global economy, politics and the current state of UK real estate.
As Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in the Spiderman comics, "With great power, comes great responsibility."
Following a recent decision of the High Court, landlords may have to consider the extent to which a modest ground rental income acquired for a relatively modest premium may also come with "great responsibility" after the Court ordered a ground rent landlord to design and implement an extensive and expensive scheme of works to replace the glass facades of one of the UK's tallest buildings outside London.
The case is a useful reminder that:
If One Heddon Street is the Crown Estate's first adventure into co-working flexible office space, then this market is in for a treat in the years to come. From the vibrant ornaments/flowers outside, cute café in the entrance, lush living wall and delicious #daisygreencollection coffee presented in a very fashionable #louisedear style cup, I knew I was in for a treat this morning.
On a new lease, a well advised tenant will carefully consider the extent of its repairing liability over the term. The principle of caveat emptor (buyer beware) applies so that a tenant should inspect carefully and depending on the nature of the premises, may commission a survey. This will include any part of the premises that is expressly incorporated within the demise, which might include equipment (e.g. air conditioning units exclusively serving the premises). The inspection/ survey may identify defects (patent) and disrepair in the premises.
Nuptial agreements, namely pre-nups and post-nups, are commonly associated with the rich and famous and can often be sensationalised by popular news stories. This has led to widespread belief that nuptial agreements are unfair, worthless and unromantic, when in fact they can be a sensible, fair and transparent way to discuss the financial picture on marriage and agree the outcome if ever it broke down.
Engagements and wedding planning are joyful and heart-warming experiences and too often any talk of a pre-nup is viewed as being at odds with this special time. But mind-sets are changing with more and more couples signing nuptial agreements, valuing the certainty and financial transparency that such an agreement brings and rejecting the notion that nuptial agreements are unromantic. Nevertheless, many feel apprehensive about raising the subject of nuptial agreements, partly due to the lack of impartial information and often influenced by popular misheld beliefs.
The time limit to file a Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) return and pay the tax due to HMRC is being halved from 30 days to just 14 days.
SDLT is the tax payable by purchasers and tenants when they acquire an interest in land in England and Northern Ireland with a value over a certain threshold.
The current deadline for submitting a SDLT return and paying any tax due is 30 days from the effective date of the transaction. This time limit is being slashed to just 14 days for transactions with an effective date on or after 1 March 2019.
We are now a month into the Disclosure Pilot Scheme (the “Pilot"), which came into force on 1 January 2019. The Pilot will operate (with limited exceptions) for two years in various Business & Property courts around the country and seeks to revolutionise the way parties deal with disclosure in proceedings; standard disclosure is no more!
A gloriously crisp January morning saw me donning my very attractive cycling gear and speeding down to Kings Cross to attend a breakfast seminar to unpick the key themes behind the recently published London Knowledge Clusters Research Report. Commissioned by the London Property Alliance and authored by one of the speakers at the seminar, Jack Sallabank of Future Places Studio, the report explores the growing role of life sciences and associated ‘knowledge’ industries in the London economy, focusing on the key opportunities and challenges for London’s real estate industry in these areas.
Charities might wish to acquire or sell property for a number of reasons; to occupy, as offices or shops, or for investment purposes in the furtherance of its charitable aims. When entering into a real estate transaction the charity trustees will need to ensure they comply with the terms of the charity’s constitution as well as statutory requirements set out in the Charities Act 2011.
Here are a few key points to consider…
