Recently in Receptions Category

Development was the hot topic among Bristol, Swindon and Bath's property fraternity at our annual reception in Bristol on Friday. Developers were out in force among the 60 or so guests and keen to talk about starting on projects in the area.

HDG Mansur's Chris Read was as bullish as ever about its Finzels Reach scheme in Bristol and has promised a site tour so I can see the work that is going on (keep an eye on this blog for a full report). And Muse was equally bullish about its Union Square project in Swindon although wouldn't be tied down on an actual start date.

EG's editor Damian Wild announced the winners of the EGi Deal's Database competition: Alder King and King Sturge and after all that excitement is was time for a bite to eat and a catch up on the rest of the market gossip.

A selection of pictures from the event are below, more will be added as they become available and the synopsis for the Bristol, Swindon and Bath Focus is available here

A lack of supply and the fragile state of the property market were key topics at the Estates Gazette Focus reception in Manchester last week (for pictures click here).

The reception, held in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, included a presentation by EG editor Damian Wild. He also announced the winners of the EGi deals database competition with King Sturge taking the Most Active National Agent in Greater Manchester title and Roger Hannah the Most Active Regional Agent.

EGTV's Helen Roxburgh talked to attendees about the city's property market, and visited developer Argent at its 78,000 sq ft office scheme The Hive, which is due to complete next week. The building is a rarity - a new office block completing in the city this year.

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.

I'm currently up in a very rainy Manchester, catching up on all the news and gossip and gathering ideas for our upcoming Manchester Focus ahead of the release of the synopsis at our reception on the 3rd Feb (you can get more details by clicking here).

A recurring theme is the lack of office stock in the pipeline. Indeed, walking around Manchester, cranes on the skyline are notable by their absence.

Final year-end figures for 2009 are soon to be finalised, but Lambert Smith Hampton reckons there is around 900,000 sq ft of prime availability in the centre. Total take-up for 2009 is expected to have reached the 700,000-800,000 sq ft mark, meaning that there's little more than a year's worth of stock out there.

 Picture by Frankie Roberto used under the Creative Commons license on Flickr.

The great and the good of South Wales' property community were out in their droves on Friday for the Focus reception at the Park Plaza in Cardiff.

More than 60 were in attendance and I cornered some of the agents to find out their thoughts on a few topical issues. There were some strong opinions on the recent resignation of first minister Rhodri Morgan and I also asked how they were feeling about office building 3 Assembly Square - or Midtown as its agents are calling it - coming on to a market when demand is thin on the ground. Listen to our podcast to find out what some of the guests had to say.

Our photographer was also snapping away so click the continue reading link below to see pictures of the event.

Standing on the balcony of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club with the sun shining and the yachts shimmering it was easy to forget the troubled economy and market turmoil.

But appearances can be a little deceptive and there was understandably a slightly sombre feel to our annual Southampton Focus reception which saw agents from the four corners of Hampshire and Dorset in attendance.

Over a glass of something cold and a canape or two, there was talk of redundancies as work levels have diminished but there were still some positive stories to tell about new jobs and new start ups.

Melanie talked to a few of the guests about their thoughts on the state of the market and you can listen to what they said by clicking here.

If you'd like to talk to the journalists writing the features for the Hampshire, Dorset and South Wilts Focus click here for the synopsis.

The Focus will be published in EG on October 31 alongside a report on the event but in the meantime here are a few pictures:

 

Photos by Marcus Rose all rights reserved