Sports Arena Stays On Track

 Building works on Derby's £22 million multi-use sports arena has moved a step closer after the Environmental Agency gave the thumbs-up to the Pride Park plans.

International Realty Times reports that rents for office space in the prime area of Beijing will rise above the same prices in Shanghai for the first time ever in 2013, making it the most expensive office location in China.

Despite Beijing's status as the capital of China, Shanghai has had the more expensive office rent for the past few decades running, simply because Beijing had more land and thus more availability. But Beijing's growth has caught up with the land available in the region.

Vacancy rates in the Moscow office market fell noticeably in H1 2012 amid robust tenant demand and limited development completions, according to Knight Frank’s newly released Moscow Office Market Report.

Jones Lang LaSalle announced that it has been selected by Logica, a leading business consulting and technology services company, to serve as exclusive real estate services adviser for the company’s worldwide property portfolio.

The Nottingham office of DTZ has been appointed to market East Anglia’s largest single available industrial site – the former Boulton & Paul Joinery factory and timber yard in Lowestoft.

Leeds based property investment and development company, Town Centre Securities PLC (TCS), has acquired 6/7 Park Row, a Leeds city centre landmark office building, for £7m. The property was sold by AXA Real Estate, on behalf of its client Co-Operative Insurance Society Ltd. Property agents Jones Lang LaSalle acted for AXA and Peter Lund and Partners for Town Centre Securities.

Jones Lang LaSalle has published its Q2 2012 UK Property Index which highlights that the office sector recorded the strongest quarterly returns at 1.0% in Q2 followed by the industrial sector at 0.3% and retail at 0.0% as foreign investors continue to target prime office stock.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced that it will invest A$1 billion to support development within Sydney’s CBD.

Working in a joint venture with Lend Lease Corporation and the Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial (APPFC) CPPIB will develop and hold two institutional quality, premium grade, energy-efficient waterfront office towers at the Barangaroo South Project in Sydney's Central Business District (CBD) in Australia.

Office building transactions continue to dominate Shanghai's real estate market with over 435,000 sq. m. of space traded.

Transactions involving office buildings accounted for as much as 73 per cent of the real estate volume in the first half of 2012 in the city, according to a report by the international property services firm DTZ which was released this week. Office transactions continue to dominate Shanghai's real estate market, which saw continued increases in rental levels and trading volumes, and growing interest from local investors, according to the latest commercial property report on China.

The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly LEP has announced the first investor at the Aerohub Enterprise Zone at Newquay Cornwall Airport.

More than 30 high quality jobs will be created at the airport when the Classic Aircraft Trust relocates its fleet of iconic post-war jet aircraft to Newquay having outgrown its existing premises at Coventry Airport.

Acting on behalf of Invesco Real Estate, Strutt & Parker has completed the purchase of 107 Cheapside in the City for £124m. The fund manager has bought the building from Irish investor Menolly on behalf of the iii-BVK Europa-Immobilien-Spezialfonds, a German property fund it manages.The 183,000 sq ft building is let to 13 tenants at an average of £39 per sq ft, which produces £7.5m in rent. The largest tenant is law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, which took 45,000 sq ft at £42.50 per sq ft in 2009.

Marketing Derby Bondholder Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, have been awarded a Certificate of Excellence for their new 1,000,000sq. ft.  distribution building at East Midlands Distribution Centre for client Marks & Spencer. The award, issued by BREEAM, sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and is recognized globally as the world’s foremost environmental assessment method of rating for buildings.

The Derby Property Show, one of the most popular events in Derby’s business calendar, is set to be the stage for news on major city developments with over 500 attendees expected.Speakers at the morning seminar Russell Rigby and John Forkin will outline progress on up and coming city developments, including the Friar Gate Square office complex, now under construction, and the future of Duckworth Square.There will also be a presentation on the Castleward Urban Village project by Compendium Living Managing Director Dave Bullock – the development will see the creation of a boulevard linking the railway station to Westfield Derby in the heart of the city.Other commercial developments and properties in the city will also be present at the show held at Pride Park Stadium on Wednesday 16th May.Agenda for the day09:30 - Exhibition Opens10:45 - Seminar - "Derby - A Power House for Economic Growth"12:00 - Lunch14:15 - Seminar - "5 Ways to Run a Better Business" with Action Coach Neale Lewis15:15 - Exhibition Closes

To find out more click on:

http://www.marketingderby.co.uk/events/next-event

CBRE has sold Lakeside House, Northampton for £17.7 million to Topland Group, representing a net initial yield of 8.65 per cent. The sale follows the appointment of Tim Perkin and Tom Webb of CBRE, as LPA Receivers of Lakeside House in September 2011. The sale was effected by the Loan and Corporate Recovery team on behalf of the original lender to the asset.

Lakeside House is a 101,000 sq ft prime office building located on The Lakes, Northampton’s premier business park. It is fully let to the National Grid and attracts an annual rent of over £1.62 million per annum on a lease with a break option effective July 2022. Situated close to Northampton town centre and within 4 miles of the M1, Lakeside House is strategically positioned between London and Birmingham. It benefits from excellent transport links with Northampton’s main rail station providing connections to London Euston and Birmingham New Street in less than 60 minutes, and Birmingham International and London Luton Airports are around 50 miles away. Andrew Meikle, Director in the Capital Markets team of CBRE’s Birmingham office, said:“The sale of Lakeside House demonstrates that investors still have a strong appetite for high quality, fully-let regional office buildings where fundamentally strong lease terms and covenants are presented.”

The distinctive profile of Bridgewater Place, Leeds’ tallest building, can already be seen from miles around. £4.3 billion has been invested in major development projects in Leeds over the last decade, with a further £638 million currently under construction and £5.9 billion in the development pipeline.

Direct commercial property transaction volumes reached $75 billion in the first quarter of 2012, down 23% year on year, but real estate fundamentals remain attractive despite continuing economic uncertainty, according to the latest market report from Jones Lang LaSalle. All major commercial property markets globally recorded a quieter start to the year after a very active 2011, particularly in the final quarter. Also, substantial one off transactions in established markets, such as the sale of the Trafford Centre Shopping Centre in the United Kingdom for US$2.6 billion that enhanced volumes a year ago were not repeated in the first three months of 2012, leading to a fall in total volumes recorded.

The decline was also due to sustained economic pressures restricting the availability of debt finance, especially for new borrowing, said the consultants.

‘Whilst volumes are down in the first quarter of 2012 and the economic backdrop remains uncertain, the underlying attractiveness of real estate continues due to strong demand and sound fundamentals. The final quarter of 2011 was one of heightened uncertainty in Europe, but reassuringly policy makers realised the seriousness of the situation and took the appropriate action, which helped to stimulate activity across the continent,’ said Arthur de Haast, head of the International Capital Group at Jones Lang LaSalle.

‘Volumes and sentiment in the US continues to improve with growth increasing by 16% on a year on year basis in the first quarter of 2012, on the back of improving economic indicators. Canadian and Mexican volumes increased more than 50% over the same period,’ he explained.

‘2011 was the second strongest year on record for Asia Pacific with annual volumes at US$98 billion. Despite a slowdown in Q1 2012 compared to Q1 2011, we expect performance to improve during the coming months as monetary and fiscal policy is gradually loosened around the region,’ he added.

The desire to close deals in the final quarter of 2011 was evident with a further upgrading of the full year numbers. Such was the extent of activity in 2011 as a whole that it will take time for that momentum to build again in 2012.

‘Commercial property continues to draw capital and interest from institutional investors, increasingly through allocations diverted away from equities, commodities and other asset classes. This trend will continue as the attraction of fixed assets increases in line with the predicted rise in global inflation over the medium term,’ said David Green-Morgan, director of Global Capital Markets Research at Jones Lang LaSalle.

‘Whilst the global economic road ahead might not be completely smooth, investor sentiment remains positive. The on-going debt issues in commercial property will continue to pose problems for some and present opportunities for others all of which will contribute to transactional activity,’ he added.

‘Whilst the prime, major cities of the world such as London and New York will continue to attract large amounts of capital we expect investors to examine more closely the increasing number of opportunities in secondary markets as pricing in this area continues to adjust, de Haast pointed out.

‘While investors remain somewhat cautious most are continuing to execute their strategies albeit with longer transaction times and more detailed underwriting. Given the weight of capital available Jones Lang LaSalle expects full year 2012 transactional volumes to be consistent with 2011 at circa US$400 billion, with a number of portfolio deals globally expected to boost activity,’ he said.

‘2012 is likely to be another year dominated by policy responses to changing economic conditions, for activity to materially surpass 2011 we would need to see more debt available globally and for a sustained increase in activity in secondary markets, which we haven’t seen as yet in 2012,’ he added.

The expected upturn in European shopping centre development in 2011 was knocked off course by delays in a number of markets, according to a report from Cushman & Wakefield. If all the shopping centre projects scheduled for the year had been completed on time, provision across Europe would have increased by nearly 6.8 million sq.m, representing an increase of 15% on the (revised) 2010 total. However, delays in several markets - notably Russia, Turkey and Italy - resulted in the amount of new shopping centre space in Europe in 2011 totaling 5.9 million sq.m, nearly identical to that of 2010.

Eagle Business Park on Broadway in Yaxley is one of Peterborough area’s newest commercial property developments.  According to agents Carter Jonas and Barker Storey Matthews, the Park is fast becoming a major destination for a contrasting range of companies whose diversity reflects the vibrancy of our local business scene.

The ninth publication in the Colliers International Central London Retail Health Check series, which provides an overview of the current state of the retail market has shown that there are now 10% fewer shops fronting Central London streets than five years ago.

De Montfort University estimated in December 2011 that property lenders are stuck with up to £114bn of debt that cannot be refinanced in today’s market. With 54% of UK Commercial Property finance agreements due to expire by 2014, according to the British Property Foundation, property investors and owner occupiers need to take early action to ensure that they will be able to refinance.