ST (£) “Marsh & Parsons declined to comment when asked if they conduct face-to-face checks on prospective tenants.” No mention in story suggesting rental deposits were collected.

FT (£) “The changes are likely to loosen the application of design standards..including on the placing of openable windows”. Fiddling with planning rules, tweaking affordable percentages . Desperate in-vain measures. https://t.co/YlHUi3hHNW via @ft

FT (£) Austrian property tycoon René Benko sentenced to two years in jail. The case forms part of a wider investigation into the failure of Signa, which caught out banks, sovereign wealth funds that lent more than €15bn to entities in the group. https://t.co/K9ZZT76kkk via @ft

WSJ (£) Businesses leased 23.2 million square feet of additional Manhattan office space during the first nine months of 2025, according to real-estate services firm CBRE Group. That is the largest amount of new workspace rented for that period in 19 years.

Estates Gazette (£) Has Labour the political memory of a goldfish? Home Information Packs had the reverse of the effect intended in 2007. My column contains a reminder in EG from an ex-Master of the Rolls on what will improve the house transfer system. https://t.co/tinAdyGp00

Mail: “His UK assets include a £12 million mansion near Primrose Hill, in London, and 10 Fenchurch Street, an office building in the City of London bought through one of his companies for £95 million in 2020.” Best not Know Your Client?

Place Yorkshire: Following a recent shareholder dispute, Commercial Estates Group filed papers on 10 October as part of its management team move on to form a new company.

Costar (£) Apologies to CBRE employees in Britain. This new office is in Dallas, Texas. https://t.co/YslVmZJjfy

Estates Gazette (£) “Now, together with 50:50 joint venture partner Royal London Asset Management, British Land is pitching the £400m revamped building as a new home for science and technology tenants.”

Bloomberg (£) The number of homebuilders trading in Britain fell by more than 1,500 - or 1.7% - in the year to September, the first annual decline in a decade, according to Hamptons. Some 1,904 developers were either in administration or in the process..

DT (£) “The problem – and this is a problem replayed, in one way or another in every chapter – was that architects and planners were unable to make their vision appealing to potential residents.” And still we build upwards.

British Land issue perky trading update for the six months to 30 September ahead of half year results on 19 November: 251 new leases signed for total of 1.4m sq ft at 5.3% above estimates including a number of lettings to AI businesses.

Great Portland win permission from Southwark council to nearly double the size of a ‘retrofit-first’ 1980’s office block in SE1 to 190,000 sq ft by adding five stories to create an 11 floor block.

Mail: And they say there is no money in residential block management. https://t.co/b7W3YWd0x9

Housing Forum gets new chief executive. https://t.co/3qJBhGaTkP

British Property Federation dismisses late changes to planning legislation as currently ineffective as the “biggest challenge” faced by developers is the viability of their projects, not helped by red-tape delays enforced by slow operation of the Building Safety Regulator.

Bisnow: A growing chorus of investors are raising red flags about the escalating price tag of data center investment. They say the hype will inevitably collide with economic reality and create the “mother of all financial bubbles.”

National Audit Office report unveils what can only be described as a huge scandal, showing that 98% of the 22,000-23,000 older homes insulated under a government scheme are defective and will need repair work. https://t.co/rlkFBmWtGj

Times (£) “Will McCallum at Greenpeace, said: “The Crown Estate should be managing the seabed in the interest of the nation and the common good, not as an asset to be milked for profit and outrageous bonuses.” The Estate’s PR can only get worse.

FT (£) “Blackstone is considering a takeover of London-listed Big Yellow Group, sending shares in the UK self-storage company soaring.” There will be nothing left soon… https://t.co/fOYUyIy1og