Archives: Real Estate Investment

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Attack of the Triffids: Knotweed nuisance cranks up a notch

By Indeg Kerr on Posted in Ownership, Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment, Real Estate Management
Investor, developer, indeed landowner in any capacity – recent rulings mean Japanese Knotweed is now more of a nuisance (and a costly one) than ever. With over 6000 UK locations identified as containing the weed, you best be clear on how to handle this inconvenient invader or you face ending up in a bind. What’s … Continue Reading

Buying in Wales? Why a speedy completion should be top of your priorities

By Catrin McHugh on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Investment
Those of you involved in the acquisition of properties in Wales over the next couple of months should take note – if the value is over £1,000,000 for non-residential properties (or for non-residential leases, a net present value of over £2,000,000) or £400,000 for residential properties, then you’ll pay less tax if you can complete … Continue Reading

Public Register of Overseas Companies – Now You See Me…..

By Nisha Aggarwal and Siobhan Hayes on Posted in Ownership, Real Estate Investment
If you are an investor currently using overseas entities to hold UK property you should be aware that the UK Government is putting together proposals for greater transparency of the beneficial owners of UK properties owned by overseas entities. The regulations will have implications for: the risk management, timing and due diligence in real estate … Continue Reading

BloggeRS: Eva Lai ‘Proposal for new Chinese investment rules – Is UK property investment still attractive?’

By Eva Lai on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Investment
Reports suggest that China proposes to impose greater monitoring of large outbound investments and potentially block state-owned enterprises from purchasing overseas property with a value of more than US$1bn in a single transaction. Additionally, permission may be required for the transfer of funds over US$5m. The previous threshold was US$50m. It is likely that more … Continue Reading

BloggeRS: Introducing Eva Lai ‘Mastering the art of “guanxi” for Chinese outbound investments’

By Eva Lai on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Investment
As many of you are aware when doing business with Chinese investors you will need to come to terms with “Guanxi” – meaning relationships or connections outside the family. This is the core of Chinese society and culture. It is important for the Chinese to get to know the person with whom they wish to … Continue Reading

The Modern Slavery Act 2015: Effects on the Property Industry one year on

By Siobhan Hayes and Geoffrey Yussouf on Posted in Corporate Real Estate, Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
Modern Slavery is broadly a term covering slavery, forced labour, servitude and human trafficking. It has been described as “the great human rights issue of our time” by Theresa May. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 was introduced as part of an effort to tackle the issue by imposing a requirement on every large business carrying … Continue Reading

(UK) Welsh Residential Private Rented Sector – Key New Regulations in Force

By Indeg Kerr and Siobhan Hayes on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Investment
As we mentioned in an earlier post Regulations for dealing with private rented housing in Wales are increasing. From 23 November 2016 all properties need to be registered and anybody undertaking, letting or management work has to go further and be licensed. FOR FURTHER DETAILS CONTINUE READING 1. Registration by all landlords Why register? The Welsh … Continue Reading

(UK) A Construction Industry Scheme Is Taxing For Both Landlords And Tenants

By Matthew Jones and Annette Beresford on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
It is all too easy for landlords and tenants not to realise that their deal can fall foul of the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) requiring contractors to withhold tax from sub-contractors, designed to make sure that sub-contractors income tax is paid. How does this happen? – A landlord can be deemed to be a contractor … Continue Reading

(UK) Business Rates and Compensation for Tenants

By Jess Hartley and Siobhan Hayes on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
Following our recent update on business rates, we are warning developers to look at their budgets for statutory compensation that may be due at the end of a 1954 Act protected tenancy because of the VOA’s reassessment of rateable values, which comes into force next April 2017.  The timing of the notices served to end the … Continue Reading

Pubs & Planning Update

By Julia Berry on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
Wandsworth Council has just taken the unprecedented step of issuing a non-immediate Article 4 Direction to withdraw permitted development rights relating to demolition, alteration and changes of use from 120 pub and bar sites in Wandsworth “due to their historic or architectural value or because they make a positive contribution to their community”. Unlike an … Continue Reading

Partitions and Vacant Possession

By Katherine A. Campbell and Siobhan Hayes on Posted in Corporate Real Estate, Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Investment
We are often asked by landlords whether tenants need to completely strip out premises including partitioning when they are required to deliver up vacant possession. This is most common when break clauses are conditional on delivering vacant possession. What does vacant possession mean? In the leading case (NYK Logistics Limited –v– Ibrend Estates), it was … Continue Reading

Recovering Possession of Abandoned Residential Property

By Sarah Atkinson on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Investment, Real Estate Management
The headline news from the Housing and Planning Act 2016 (the ‘Housing and Planning Act’) makes it look as though there is a good new solution to enable residential landlords to get their property back in their control when it has been abandoned.  In practice it contains a number of provisions that serve only to … Continue Reading

That Sinking Feeling

By Jamie Garside and Siobhan Hayes on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
Structuring the ownership of mixed use buildings requires care both initially and then during the management of the building.  In a recent case, an investor in the residential parts of a mixed use building faces a significant service charge shortfall that was avoidable. Residential tenants benefit from a statutory requirement that their service charge must … Continue Reading

The sky’s the limit…

By Stuart Wright on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
What would you do if; your property development business had obtained planning permission to construct a 62 storey tower comprising 200,714 sq.m; you had secured funding in principle to commence the development; BUT the proposed development infringed the rights to light of 61 properties – of which 53 were maintaining their fundamental right to an … Continue Reading

A new broom: sweeper clauses in residential leases

By Sarah Atkinson on Posted in Real Estate (UK), Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment
Properly employed, sweeper clauses are designed to catch service charge costs that may be unforeseeable at the time of drafting. This is an essential fall back when drafting a long residential lease whose term will be somewhere between 99 and 999 years and subject to a statutory right of extension on the same lease terms. … Continue Reading
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