Recently in Focus receptions Category

While our Edinburgh reception was in full swing I managed to coax some of the city's agents and developers to a quiet(ish) corner to ask them about the market's prospects this year and whether the Scottish capital would be leading the way out of recession.

A full set of photo's from the reception can be found by clicking  clicking here and our Edinburgh Focus is published in this weeks magazine.

Edinburgh property market predictions from Stacey Meadwell on Vimeo.

After inflicting sticky floors and less than glamourous surroundings on our guests last year (the person who recommended the venue confessed to having been a little bit tipsy when they'd visited) it was time for something a bit, well, nicer for this year's annual Manchester reception.
 
And our choice of The Modern at Urbis, with it's panoramic views of the city, seemed to go down well with the city's property industry who turned out in force, despite the snow.

There was plenty to talk about, some of which may even make it into the Manchester features. The rest? Well I couldn't possibly say except that it involved a life guard and a moustache.

Here are a few pictures, we'll add the rest as they become available. You can also click here for the Manchester and North West industrial synopses.

Despite changing the time of the event three times Edinburgh's agents, developers and public sector still turned out in force yesterday (sorry everyone!).

EG's editor Damian Wild commented in his speech on how it was a Scottish agent last year that had given him his frankest description of market conditions - a word I dare not repeat here but it rhymes with 'hit'.
 
Fortunately that Scottish frankness did not seem to warrant such language now the new decade has arrived. The chat was very much about continuing tough conditions but some light at the end of the tunnel.

It was great to see so many familiar faces and some new, here are all the pictures including the winners of the EGi deals database competition: Jones Lang LaSalle and Ryden. The Edinburgh Focus synopsis is also available here.

 
Pictures by Alan Donaldson

View Estates Gazette features list 2010 in a larger map

We've just put the finished touches to an interactive map of the 2010 features list. You can drag and zoom the map below to find the part of the country you're interested in. Click on the blue flags to find out when we are covering your part of the country and to find a link to the relevant synopsis. These will be added as they become available, usually six weeks prior to publication.

And you can click on the red flags to see when we are holding a reception in your area and come and meet us all face to face.

The map will be available permanently by clicking on the "2010 features" link on the right hand side of the blog, in the Pages section, and just under the About us links.

If you prefer to view the features list on a week by week basis then you can always get this by clicking here.

Ivanhoe Cambridge was the envy of many a shopping centre developer in May when it landed Hamleys for a 30,000 sq ft unit in the extension to its St Enoch shopping centre in Glasgow.

While in the city for our annual Glasgow Focus reception I met up with Ivanhoe's Richard Kingston who took me on a grand tour of the centre to see how work is progressing.

Many of the existing retailers have stayed open during the works but of the new space, it was only Hamley's that looked like it was well on the road to finishing its fit out.

Opening of the 250,000 sq ft of new space will be phased with the first tranche of retailers launching next month in time for the lucrative Christmas trading period. For more info see our Glasgow Focus published on November 22.

Click on continue reading to see the pictures I took. Hamleys' unit is easily spotted by it's red colour-scheme. Looks like there still a lot of work to be done elsewhere though.

Hopefully the sun will have shone on our annual Southampton reception today - the Southampton yacht club is the perfect place when you can throw open the doors and use the balcony while discussing the serious business of the property market.

There will be more on the reception on this blog tomorrow.

This is the synopsis we are launching - it's probably one of the longest we produce because there are so many places to cover. Get in touch with the writers if you work in any of these markets or have a view on how the recession is affecting property agents in the area. Click continue reading for all the details.

Every reporter knows that if you want to know what's really going on in a city then you ask  a taxi driver.

So what does it say about a city's inward investment potential when the taxi drivers want to go back into the construction sector.

Well, in Cardff it doesn't signify the start of the next boom. Invest in Wales will give you a more balanced view but according to my driver inward investment into the Welsh capital is dead. I'll caveat that by saying that I suspect if you asked any cabbie in any UK city, they'd say the same. 

As we raced round the city's ring road he bemoaned the fact that the business men had stopped pouring off the trains from Paddington.

He'd been on the rank since 7am and by now it was nearly lunch - and he'd picked up two suits and charged £15. That was the sum total of his fares that day. In the good ol' days he said he'd have been doing that an hour.

 

Last night we launched the synopsis for our next West Midlands feature at a reception in Birmingham. EG's new editor Damian Wild was there to great the guests and took time out to record an interview for the Focus blog which we will be posting next week.

Pictures and a podcast recorded on the night can be found over at our Midlands Editor, Lisa Pilkington's blog. In the meantime here are some of the topics we'll be covering in the feature:


Sentiment Survey
Please fill in our survey, which is tracking sentiment about the property market and wider economy among the West Midlands' property professionals throughout the year. The survey is completely anonymous. Click here to take part. If you would like to comment on the issues raised in the survey contact: Stacey Meadwell, Focus editor 020 7911 1819, stacey.meadwell@rbi.co.uk Email: stacey.meadwell@rbi.co.uk

What they did next..?
A look at how peoples careers have changed post redundancy.
Contact: Nadia Elghamry, deputy focus editor 020 7911 1849 Email: nadia.elghamry@rbi.co.uk

Market Overview
An in-depth analysis of the office, industrial & distribution, retail and leisure sectors in the region.
Contact: Daniel Cunningham, senior focus writer 020 7911 1822 Email: daniel.cunningham@rbi.co.uk

Olympic Legacy
What can the region do to ensure it is part of the Olympic's legacy?
Contact: Lisa Pilkington, Midlands Editor, 07771 673 458 Email: lisa.pilkington@rbi.co.uk

Public sector funding cuts
Earlier this year Advantage West Midlands withdrew funding for 122 regeneration schemes across the region - what impact will this have?
Contact: David Thame, North West features writer, 01544 262 896 Email: dthame@clara.co.uk