Kate Allen

Kenya’s $2bn bond is latest in a flurry of debt-raising

Harassment scandal shines uncomfortable spotlight on real estate business

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

An analysis of land as the overlooked problem at the heart of an overheated market

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

Newly elected political representatives face similar problems when moving to capital cities where housing is expensive

Plans to extend Sunday shop opening hours suffered a setback after the government was defeated by 31 votes in the Commons — a reminder of the Conservatives’ fragile parliamentary majority. The government was beaten by 317 votes to 286 after being challenged by what it dubbed an “unholy alliance” of a handful of Conservative backbenchers, Labour, the Scottish National party, the Democratic Unionists, Plaid Cymru and some Liberal Democrats. The decision by the SNP to vote against the proposal wa…

Property developer warns new projects are ‘potential slums of the future’

A huge London housebuilding zone has received two significant boosts, with planning permission given for the redevelopment of Britain’s biggest wholesale market and ministers approving the extension of a connecting Tube line. New Covent Garden Market in south London will be redeveloped to create thousands of homes in a £2bn project, after Wandsworth council granted planning permission on Wednesday. The fruit, vegetable and flower market is part of the Nine Elms regeneration zone in Battersea,…

Scotland’s grouse moors and castles have long been a draw for the globe-trotting wealthy. They will now face a land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) at marginal rates of up to 12 per cent – up from a current maximum of 7 per cent UK-wide stamp duty for housing and 4 per cent for commercial property. The tax will be levied by the devolved Edinburgh government on a sliding scale, with the first £135,000 of any property being tax-free. Under the current UK-wide tax regime, someone buying a £5…

Unreal City,Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,A crowd flowed over London Bridge When TS Eliot wrote those lines in the early 1920s London was a polluted, overcrowded metropolis blighted by heavy industry, poverty and slums. Forty years later city workers’ spacious new homes in airy, leafy suburbs and new towns were memorialised by John Betjeman. He wrote in 1962: One can’t be sure where London ends,New towns have filled the fields of rootWhere father and his business friendsDrove in the Lan…

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

One of Britain’s least popular professions, the high street estate agent, is facing a shake-up as the digital revolution finally reaches the business of selling and renting bricks and mortar. The growing popularity of property portals Rightmove and Zoopla has made it possible for homeowners to take control out of estate agents’ hands. It has enabled the rise of online estate agencies, which offer sellers and landlords a way of advertising on the portals without having to pay the high fees that…

It is one of the world’s most instantly recognisable buildings and a symbol of the global dominance of London’s financial district. Now, it is the ignominious property casualty of the global financial crisis. The Gherkin, formally known as 30 St Mary Axe, was put up for sale this week by receivers Deloitte after they were called in by its creditors, a consortium of German banks, in April. But this is no ordinary victim of the credit crunch: the Gherkin is in good shape. It is fully let and wi…

French retail landlord Klépierre is to acquire the Netherlands’ largest listed property company, Corio, in an effort to create Europe’s biggest retail mall operator. In the all-stock deal, Klépierre will give 1.14 of its shares for every share in Corio, which has a market capitalisation of €3.5bn. The deal values Corio at a 15.6 per cent premium to its share price before the offer. Shares in Klépierre, which has a €7.2bn market capitalisation, fell 2.8 per cent to €35.35 in Paris trading. The…

The City of London’s Gherkin building has been put up for sale by administrators who hope to attract bids of at least £650m. The 41-floor tower was designed by Lord Foster for insurance company Swiss Re and opened in 2004. But the Gherkin fell into receivership this year after debts secured against the building soared. Administrators Deloitte have appointed estate agents Savills and Deloitte Real Estate to sell the building, which is thought to have a market value of at least £650m, according…

A £1bn plan to create an Asian business district in a rundown part of east London’s docklands will go ahead after the local council gave planning permission. The Asian Business Port will include 4.7m square feet of floor space in the Royal Docks area, to the east of Canary Wharf, on a site previously owned by the public sector. It aims to attract Asian companies to open European offices in east London. The project is the biggest commercial property deal to be struck by London mayor Boris Johns…

The man who shaped the City for 30 years explains why he approved its high-rise transformation

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication