The Property Law Blog

Guestblogger Bruce Dear, Head of London Real Estate, Eversheds meets Rob Noel for a pre-Christmas lunch.

A renowned London real estate expert, Rob is Managing Director of Land Securities' London Portfolio. Although born in Yorkshire and educated at Marlborough, he is a Londoner by adoption and long commitment.

Rob started work in 1986 at Kemsley, Whitely & Ferris, before Big Bang blew away the Bowlers, and when faxes were high tech. "You'll get £5,850 a year and must take your secretary for lunch once a month out of that - any questions?". A move to Nelson Bakewell followed, where he started on Black Monday, 1987.

Specialising in investment agency, Rob built a track record of high profile, complex deals, culminating in one of the leading and most debated deals of the turn of the Millennium, the purchase of MEPC by Hermes and long term client, GE Capital. During the transaction Rob developed a close working relationship with a charismatic Young Turk, Toby Courtauld, then a senior MEPC executive.

Rob was settled in agency, but friendships are fate. Both took a hand when Toby Courtauld, now ensconced at Great Portland as Chief Executive at just 33, asked him to join. "I took to the client side straightaway. Agents can walk away from properties and onto the next deal. The principal has ownership and responsibility and must live with the asset for its whole life cycle. Agents are deal midwives. Clients do the longer term parenting. I enjoy that discipline, even under the magnifying glass of a public REIT - showing conviction, standing by your decisions. Toby and Great Portland gave me the chance to discover that."

Rob was Property Director at Great Portland from 2002 to 2009. On his watch, Great Portland became a nimble central London specialist and Rob built what Francis Salway, Chief Executive of Land Securities, has called his, "outstanding track record in central London transactions and investment performance." Long an admirer, Francis persuaded Rob to leave Great Portland and join Land Securities as Board Director and Managing Director of the London Portfolio in January 2010.

Sixty per cent of Land Securities' portfolio is in London. It is the apex of their strategy. Property markets are still relatively opaque and powered by information. This puts a premium on focused local knowledge and Rob knows London better than Peter Ackroyd: "London is the pre-eminent City in Europe. It's one of fewer than a dozen truly global cities that will be central to the 21st century. Neck and neck with New York, London has all the features a city needs to thrive economically: liveability, business infrastructure, a concentration of global HQs, a virtually unparalleled financial services and banking sector, access to markets, and a flexible and competitive labour market with a phenomenal talent pool. Hong Kong and Singapore are challengers to London, of course, but try and find a flexible labour market in Paris, or a million square feet in Frankfurt, or flush your loo after 10pm in Zurich, and you'll soon wish you were in London."

Land Securities is central to the London economy as developer, employer and provider of some of central London's premier space for offices, retail and residential. They create the spaces where Londoners live, work and shop; housing hundreds of businesses and tens of thousands of London's workforce on a daily basis. As committed early cycle players, Land Securities are, in a real sense, leading London into its property future. Development prospects make up over a quarter of its London portfolio. Following Rob's arrival, the company committed to building an ambitious 1.6 million sq ft of space in central London, including the commitment to develop 20 Fenchurch Street (the Walkie Talkie) in an imaginative JV with Canary Wharf Limited to share cost, risk and expertise.

Rob is clear, "We were the first property company to commit to major London developments and indeed to retail developments outside London, in this cycle, choosing to allocate capital to development rather than to buying in a competitive market. Look at the very limited supply of new office space coming through, the high number of lease expiries in 2013, and the rapidly tiring existing stock. The opportunity, in a supply constrained market, is evident. The key point is that our strong balance sheet, high quality portfolio and focused strategic plan allowed us to take the opportunity."

The visible impact of Land Securities' business is all around us. They are remodelling central London, revolutionising Victoria for example. Their highly successful mixed use scheme at Cardinal Place (with occupiers like Microsoft and P & O) is being followed by a constellation of Victoria focused schemes: 123 Victoria Street, (230,000 sq ft of mixed use - due to complete in June 2012); Buckingham Gate (270,000 sq ft of mixed use-due to complete April 2013); and Wellington House (a residential scheme of 59 high quality apartments). "Government downsizing has given us a once in a lifetime opportunity to rejuvenate Victoria completely for residents, businesses and visitors. Our approach there shows our commitment to mixed use developments. They create more cohesive and vibrant environments and provide sector diversification."

I ask Rob about the twin risks to any development strategy: what if rental growth doesn't come and what if occupiers decide not to re-locate, even though their premises may be tired and their leases expired? These are questions he's heard before, but that's because they are about the salient risks: "Each scheme is built to a prudently set rental target. All the market's features indicate that we will hit those targets: constrained supply, long range average take up statistics, the fact that rents as against total business costs are as low in real terms as they have ever been, and the quality and location of the mixed use assets that we are building. Businesses have two choices: either to move to newly created fit for purpose space at much the same rent as they're paying now, or to refurbish round their people, with all the inconvenience and trouble that entails, and then to stay where they are in tired, even if improved, space. We expect that enough (admittedly not all) business leaders will take the opportunity to move their people, for all the right reasons, when the expiry bulge comes."

A good slug of Land Securities' London portfolio is retail. Their shops have seen strong rental growth and appear to be an essential part of Land Securities' London picture. "Every global retailer of significance wants space in London, particularly the West End. The demand and the rents reflect that. Don't forget, the world economy, particularly in retail, is bigger than it used to be. Pre - 1989 the world behind the Iron Curtain was absent both as retailer and consumer. Now look at the West End retail scene-it's plugged into the consumer desires of the whole world."

Land Securities' decisive and full scale commitment to its strategy echoes Rob's attitude to business, "Don't dither, if it works after rigorous analysis push on. The glass really is half full, if the analysis says it is. Equally, listen to your instincts and the data if things appear to be turning down. At Great Portland in early 2007, we had a "Hello!" moment and began selling, when others were still blazing away with the buying bazookas. If you are disciplined, skilled and analytical in hard times, then those times will work for you."

The times will work for Land Securities and Rob. This is an extremely well disciplined business, with a coherent, clearly articulated and well defined strategy. Rob, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the London market, fits smoothly into the Land Securities' approach. Skilled operators thrive, even in difficult markets.

Photo by Yun753 via Flickr.

Despite the EG Awards last night things have been looking pretty bleak for the property sector [if you hadn't noticed] but you will be pleased to hear that fee income at the UK's top 100 law firms increased by 9.8% in Q2 (quarter ended 31 October 2011), compared with the same period last year, according to the latest quarterly legal sector survey from business advisory firm Deloitte.

The increase is more than double that seen in the previous quarter (4% in Q1, compared with the same period last year). The strongest growth for this quarter was experienced by the '26-50' category, with a 15.6% increase in fee income.

Higher revenues have been driven by an average increase in fee earner headcount and average fees per fee earner, which rose by 3.9% and 5.7% respectively. However, the averages hide a large degree of variability as some firms suffered a decline in revenues, whilst others saw fee income increase by more than 20%.

Whilst there has been a recent tendency for firms with larger international presence to achieve a greater degree of success than those focused on the domestic market, in Q2 many of the firms with the strongest performance were mainly UK focused. Nevertheless, whether the domestic market can continue to achieve this share of revenue in the medium to long term remains to be seen.

The legal sector is looking forward to continued growth throughout 2012, as UK law firms forecast a robust 6.2% increase in fee income for the year to April 2012 (against the year to April 2011). Therefore, despite inevitable concern for the immediate outlook in Europe, Deloitte's survey suggests the UK legal sector is currently performing well.

Jeremy Black, partner in Deloitte's professional services group, said: "It is pleasing to see strong growth returning to the UK legal sector and renewed optimism in the domestic market, after an extended period of challenging conditions. However, whilst firms are relatively positive about the next six months continued uncertainty in the markets means a degree of caution is needed."

Photo by Bob Jagendorf via Flickr.

Guest blogger Julian Lewis of Fladgate LLP asks the government to look at extending BPRA to the residential sector.

In the last couple of years I have become something of an "expert" in investment schemes involving BPRA. Contrary to what its name suggests, BPRA is not an alternative to BUPA or PPP. It's a fairly obscure tax relief that allows owners of commercial buildings that have been out of use for over a year to obtain 100% capital allowances in the year of expenditure for monies spent on bringing the building back into use.

It only applies to buildings in certain designated disadvantaged areas like Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Luton, Sheffield and the whole of Northern Ireland. It has a number of similarities to the old enterprise zone relief including a requirement that the owner must keep the building in use for seven years after it has been renovated.

Like enterprise zones it is intended to encourage urban renewal and investment. It's designed to deal with the plethora of empty business properties as businesses continue to go under, which can make whole regions look in the doldrums - exacerbating the lack of confidence in the market and hindering the speed of any recovery.

You would expect such a generous tax break to be widely used and trumpeted as a sign of the Government's commitment to urban renewal. But the opposite is, in fact, true. The relief has been sparingly used and was due to expire in April 2012.

The Treasury's Budget 2011 policy costings estimated that in 2009-10 around 300 companies and unincorporated businesses claimed the allowance in relation to expenditure of around £90 million. Thus, it came as something of a surprise when the relief was extended for five years in this year's budget. The total impact on tax revenues during the period of the extension was estimated by the Treasury to be only £90 million. So hardly a major tax cost.

Hotel developers in particular have been able to take advantage of BPRA. A typical investment scheme involves buying a dilapidated, unoccupied office building for a low capital value and spending a large sum of money converting it into a branded hotel, such as "Hampton by Hilton", "Hotel Indigo", "Holiday Inn Express" or similar, with a good dose of leverage. Investors then hold the hotel for seven years with a view to selling once the qualifying period has expired. The reason BPRA works so well for hotels is because the higher the cost of the works as a proportion of total costs the higher the tax relief, and converting an office building into a hotel is an expensive business.

I have been involved in a number of these projects in Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle with more coming on stream for 2012 but an emerging concern is continuing market capacity. I am aware of a number of schemes either in the market currently or just about to come to market with the aim of raising hotel investment before the end of the current tax year.

I don't think there will be a saturation issue this tax year for the better schemes. But I am less confident for future years, especially if the current economic climate does not improve.

So if the future for hotel development schemes is limited, what comes next? Traditional office refurbishment? Probably not. Refurbishment costs are not high enough to generate sufficient tax relief and bank and investor appetite for secondary locations is limited. Serviced office schemes have similar problems. Care homes look like a real possibility if developers can find buildings in the right locations, especially as local authority funding dries up.

An obvious question is "why not residential?"; the answer is simple. The one thing that buildings cannot be used for if the expenditure is to qualify for BPRA is a dwelling. I also hear you ask: didn't recent press reports confirm that housebuilding in the UK is at a record peacetime low? Hasn't the Government launched a number of new initiatives to encourage house building? Wouldn't private investors be attracted to help close the housing gap using this sort of tax break? Wouldn't it be great if more brownfield sites could be brought into residential use?

Perhaps the Government needs to join up its thinking and remove the restriction that expenditure on conversion to residential use does not qualify for BPRA. I'm sure that private investors will be only too willing to invest and stimulate growth in the construction sector and to deliver more affordable housing for rental. What is it waiting for?

Julian Lewis, Partner, Fladgate LLP (jlewis@fladgate.com)

Photo by austincameraguy via Flickr.

Guest blogger Anthony Hennessy focuses on the SDLT shaped hole in the Autumn Statement.

Readers of last Saturday's "Times", with its front page splash on "stamp duty", more correctly stamp duty land tax ("SDLT") avoidance, will have noticed the disconnect between the heavily trailed crack down on "loop holes" and what actually came out in the Autumn Statement. In particular, in a largely SDLT free zone, there was no imposition of SDLT on the sale of shares in companies whose sole or main assets are real property.

Oligarchs can still buy and sell offshore companies whose sole asset is a prime piece of central London residential real estate without any SDLT or even stamp duty on the shares. Why? When SDLT was first going through the gestation process, a charge to SDLT on transfers of shares in property rich companies was considered but disappeared by the time the legislation appeared.

It does throw up some practical difficulties. If someone resident in a Gulf State sells to someone resident in a former Soviet republic all of the shares in a Panamanian company owning a Belgravia town house, how would HM Revenue and Customs police this? There would be no change in registered owner at the Land Registry. Would HMRC charge a property on entry into a company only lifting it on payment of the appropriate SDLT? Perhaps more cynically, the ability to acquire property free of SDLT in this manner, might be thought to lend buoyancy to one of the few parts of the UK property market which is prospering.

Of course, it could be said how does the company acquire the property without SDLT? The answer is cross the palm of an adviser with appropriate amounts of silver.

Of course, there could still be a sting in the tail next Tuesday when the Autumn Statement draft legislation is published...

Anthony Hennessy, Tax Consultant at boutique property firm Brecher Solicitors.

Photo by Engin Erdogan via Flickr.

Guest blogger James Nadin provides an overview of the Autumn Statement for the UK property industry.

So if you believe the headlines, the Chancellor's statement on Tuesday pretty much confirm that we're all doomed, particularly if the Euro-zone crisis isn't resolved. But are there any crumbs of comfort the property and construction industries can take from the measures outlined in what amounts to an autumn mini-budget?

The housing sector seems to have the most to be (cautiously) optimistic about. House-builders should be cheered by the £400m scheme to kick-start stalled housing projects, and the Government-backed mortgage indemnity scheme for those house buyers who can only raise a 5% deposit. There is also the promise of funding for more social housing projects, using the proceeds of selling existing stock to occupiers at up to a 50% discount.

Of course the success of these schemes will still rely on mortgage finance being made available to those who wish to buy a home. Unfortunately the overall cost of buying will not be helped by the news that the stamp duty holiday for first time buyers of homes worth up to £250,000 will end next March.

Developers will welcome the Government's stated commitment to push on with its reforms to the planning system and to address the EU's rules on 'Habitats' (perhaps not such good news if you're a great-crested newt or a dormouse). Concerns remain that the proposed reforms to planning, in tandem with the recently enacted Localism Bill, may actually result in Developers facing more obstacles and delays than they did previously - but only time will tell.

There's not much good news for retailers. The Treasury has pretty much ignored pleas to lessen or negate the impact of the proposed increase in business rates next year. The OBR's projected growth figures for the retail sector over the next 2-3 years are dismal. Sadly, it seems we're destined to see a number of retailers go to the wall in the New Year.

And what of the much trumpeted involvement of some of the UK's biggest insurers and pension funds in the new £40bn National Infrastructure Plan? On paper this looks like encouraging news for constructions firms, but the commitment of private sector money looks far from finalised. It seems there is actually no binding agreement in place between the Government and the aforementioned insurers and funds, merely a 'memorandum of understanding'.

All in all, a bit of a mixed bag for the industry. There will undoubtedly be a number of regulatory issues and disputes to resolve as the Government's plans begin to be implemented, which will keep us lawyers happy. However, as all who work in the industry know, commercial lending, or the lack of it, remains the biggest single impediment to growth in the property sector. And I suspect the increase in the banking levy is unlikely to help persuade the banks they should be more generous with their lending criteria....

James Nadin is a partner in the Commercial Property Division at Penningtons Solicitors LLP

Photo by MR Photography. via Flickr.

Guestblogger Bruce Dear, Head of London Real Estate, Eversheds is at the IPD/IPF Conference in Brighton, where he comes to some interesting conclusions about what the UK can learn from Sweden.

To Brighton for the IPF dinner and I sit next to a Swedish analyst. Unlucky Bruce, looks like it's gonna be a slow one.

Much more exciting sitting next to Shane Warne and Liz Hurley, as my friend and I accidentally did in the West End last night.

Now Liz Hurley is elegant and sports an exquisite ski jump nose (I've seen it-she does), and Shane Warne now looks (bizarrely) like a skinny Midge Ure, rather than the chunky Blond Bomb Shell whose Ball of the Century bamboozled Mike Gatting, but believe me, neither of them has any answer to the credit crunch.

Whereas the analyst, unpursued by Paparazzi, did. In the early 1990s, the Swedish Government saw the danger of an ageing population, with a stubbornly rising average life expectancy, but without a higher retirement age.

Being Swedish, they came up with an inspiring liberal answer: give people tax breaks to extend their working lives beyond 65. Work into old age because you are incentivised, not because your retirement age has been brutally ramped up.

They have also creatively spread out the public pension pot to fit people's life expectancy. Lower pensions are paid early in retirement and rise as the pensioner gets nearer to average life expectancy. This ensures that the money can't run out-it only goes further, albeit perhaps a little thinner.

Bruce how does that cheer you up? Well, it's better than a country paying everyone a lot of index linked dosh from the get go and then running out, n'est pas?

Moral: don't waste your crisis. Sweden hit serious problems in the early 1990s. The Swedes were huge net buyers of real estate all around the world. People said their only due diligence was spotting buildings from their choppers.

After all, we have them to thank for Tamara Beckwith. SPP bought LET, Tamara's dad's vehicle, for a massive sum just before the 1989 crash. Inadvertently they created the UK's first It Girl and quickly followed this by becoming the highest profile entity escaping the UK market.

At home they had a currency crisis Domestic interest rates hit 500 per cent, just before the fixed exchange rate was abandoned.

But their visionary Government took the chance. They pushed through reforms that have made Sweden a great success story. It now boasts some of the world's most powerful pension funds, a deep retail property market and an enviable quality of life, amidst hundreds of islands fringing the coastline.

Sweden is the place we can all become, if our governments can seize the current crisis and remould our sclerotic social structures into dynamic new channels.

Matthew Paris, our after dinner speaker gave some great examples of finding success in crises. Undistinguished at school, he become head boy when most of the senior boys were sent down for running a marijuana ring. Later, he got the Mellon Fellowship at Cambridge, when the student who'd won it was sent down for excessive familiarity with LSD.

So, you may think the Eurozone crisis is all bad (and it mostly it is), but if we can use to refit our society for the 21st century, then we may find ourselves as a renewed economic power-even if it's partly because some of the others have been unexpectedly sent down.

And my Swedish analyst was charming, so you don't need a ski jump nose or to spin a ball round Mike Gatting's belly (big feat though it is), to be interesting.

Photo by Mrlins via Flickr.

Bruce Dear, Head of London Real Estate, Eversheds meets Mike Hannigan, the new Head of International Real Estate at Standard Life Investments.

This is a rare London visit for Mike. His global focus means that he is almost always everywhere else - I am lucky to catch him.

An early alumnus of Reading's outstanding property course, Mike still enjoys working on their graduate mentoring programme. After Reading, he went home to Belfast and commercial agency with Milhench Carruthers (his talk still races along in Belfast style).
He was beginning to find the Northern Irish Market too narrow a space, when Norwich took an unlikely hand. With the impulsive logic of a man in his early twenties, he took advantage of a relative's wedding there to interview with Drivas Jonas and to start a new life. "DJ's were a very professional and well organised outfit. I did industrial agency and development - it was a great training."

It was also the late 1980s. City real estate was booming amidst a forest of cranes and the thick undergrowth of champagne corks. Looking for excitement and challenge, Mike made the inevitable pilgrimage from East Anglia to City agency with Herring, Son & Daw. "I can't deny that they were fun times. I built a very useful network in the City Property industry and it was the most amazing education in the volatility, and potential returns, of the London office market. I wanted to do something more creative though; something with a tangible end result and, with the down turn, I took the chance to join William Ewart in Belfast, who were redeveloping their old linen mills and developing shopping centres, in Northern Ireland. It was a great school for learning the development trade." But then the recession rippled out into the regions and Ewart's development programme stalled.

The timing was unexpectedly perfect. The charismatic Head of Real Estate at Standard Life Investments, Alex Watt, had decided that he needed a development team. He advertised and Mike answered. It was to be much more than a safe port in a storm. Mike teamed up with David Paine, who was creating Standard Life Investment's development arm. And, over time, with Alex Watt and the rest of the senior management team, he became part of the close knit group of friends who have guided Standard Life Investment's real estate group into the 21st century.

"I love the way our business is constantly evolving. At a pension fund you feel like you are doing something with a real moral centre. Investing to give people life security and creating great assets, where they can live and work. Take Churchill Square in Brighton, my most challenging and rewarding development, and a tremendously successful scheme. It was fascinating: working with a complete cross section of the industry and of the wider community and understanding and helping them to solve their problems." But with Brighton done, "it would have been difficult to top it".

So Mike moved, via retail assets, to managing the Pooled Pension Fund in 2003. Under his management, the fund grew from £1.6 billion to £3.3 billion by 2007. "We took advantage of the market strength in 2005 to set up the Select Property Fund: a hybrid global fund under Andrew Jackson, to spread and diversify risk and asset selection, and with a mixture of direct and indirect holdings to maximise liquidity and flexibility."

This global fund gave increased impetus to the internationalization of Standard Life Investments' real estate business. That international drive is now Mike's major focus. Mike and Standard Life Investments have a dual strategic approach (i) to create funds and run them in the world's local markets, for native investors and inward investors from the UK and other jurisdictions, and (ii) to use relationships in those markets to generate investor interest in its UK and international real estate funds, and to find products and funds to suit their needs. "When it works well, it creates a virtuous investment cycle between all of the key jurisdictions and products; hugely enhancing our clients' investment choice and access to the world's major markets."

This approach is overlaid with four main areas of geographical focus: "the growth of our existing business in the UK, targeted growth in the strong parts of Europe, and the growth and extension of our relationships and fund management businesses in Asia Pacific and in North America."

"My absolute priority is to expand our real estate fund management business in the Asia Pacific region. Of course, we have existing and successful offices and relationships there. My job is to leverage the opportunities that they give us and to build strong growth on that platform. We have successful JVs with HDFC Asset Management in India. In Japan, we have a relationship with Chuo Mitsui Trust Bank. Japan is an under estimated market: Tokyo is the biggest city in the world and with regeneration beginning after the Tohoku earthquake; it's a good time to show confidence in the resilience of the Japanese people and economy and to invest in Japan. I'm also interested in the opportunities presented by Japan's sovereign wealth and pension funds. Japan, much like the UK, has an ageing population and a growing need for products that deliver income. I believe that greater allocations to stable income real estate would help with that issue. At around 1.3%, Japanese funds' allocations to real estate as an asset class are low compared to international averages."

"Asia, with its intellectual and economic self confidence, fascinates me. I'm reading Mahbubani's book, The New Asian Hemisphere, which shows how the East has co-opted and adapted Western ideas of, for example, education and the free market and created their own new patterns of cooperation." This is all part of the ongoing tectonic shift in power and competitive advantage to the East. "There are still risks in Asia, of course there are: volatility, a potential for asset bubbles and inflationary pressures; but overall it's a phenomenally exciting field of opportunity."

In many jurisdictions Standard Life Investments have a head start over their competitors. For example, they have had a life company in Canada since 1833. "We have a long established institutional pension fund investing into the domestic Canadian market, with a real estate team in Toronto under the leadership of Peter Cuthbert, a headquarters in Montreal and a sales team in Calgary. Our investments there have expanded during the last year from CAD $568 to c. to CAD $900 million; we are creating opportunities for both local and international investors. With the sand oil and shale gas phenomenon, Calgary has the feel of a frontier boom economy, rather like Perth, and like the Australian real estate market, the Canadian pension funds and blue chip investors are very heavily invested in their own local market-so there is room to work with them as they diversify globally."

They also have a long standing presence in Europe. "We have been involved in Europe since 1995. We were one of the first institutions to take that market seriously." They still do. Their European Property Growth Fund has been successfully raising funds from global institutional investors during 2011. "It's too easy to talk Europe down "en bloc". Under Danny McHugh (the Director responsible for Europe) we have a targeted approach to the core markets, for example, Paris for offices, Germany (for its logistics market's yield profile), Scandinavia for retail, and Poland, where we have a recently entered into a shopping centre JV aimed at retail and logistics, all offer different possibilities."

My overwhelming impression of Standard Life Investments real estate from Mike is of a self confident management team, relaxed, but never complacent. Most importantly, they are a close group of trusted friends, with the shared history of decades of running Standard Life Investments together. In an increasingly fragmented business world, that kind of unity of purpose and values is priceless.

Mike carries his positive approach into his private life. Sadly, an encounter with two buses in Edinburgh curtailed his running career. They played ping pong with him and left him with a metal plate and a pin in his right arm and left leg. But he still kayaks, sails and hill walks. Mike's career has revolved around a constantly widening circle of compelling challenges. He is going to relish growing Standard Life Investments' international real estate business.

Photo by Shaggyshoo via Flickr.

Guest blogger Nicky Richmond is still at MAPIC

When we left off last night we were on our way to two agents' parties, conveniently located right at our own hotel. How thoughtful.

So we get to the first. You've all been to parties like this. Groups of suits chatting together in little circles. No-one breaking out of their little group. You, wondering whether you had accidentally put on your invisibility cloak.
It was the tail end of the party. A drably lit room, with a small bar and a harassed waiter struggling to keep up with the drinks requests. No food, unless you count a few peanuts on a table. No-one spoke to us. And we don't even look like lawyers.

Cut to agent's party number 2. Warmly welcomed at the door by the very professional staff, we were greeted by decent music, a great buzz, bartenders juggling with flaming bottles and 20 pole dancers (ok, I made the last one up) But really. The contrast could not have been greater.

I had to play Consiglieri in an attempt to retrieve my client's shoe. I failed. Later his mobile phone was removed from his person. Anyone who knows the legendary Richard "one shoe" Leslie will know that this has just doesn't happen to him.

My favourite snippet of the day from a passing Dutchman in the Exhibition Hall "it's extremely easy to work with English people, as long as they're not your boss". How very dare he? We British are the model of reasonable behaviour and fair management. Aren't we?

We had a great time on the Cafe Forum stand (no, me neither); our photos taken for a mock magazine, followed by pictures from a slightly odd caricaturist who sang the praises of Benny Hill and talked about the great relationship between the French and the English - has no-one told him? Cocktails were served in flashing glasses accompanied by bright pink food and as much as were having a whale of a time in tacky heaven, we had to put away our childish things and go to the grown-up stands.

I felt very sorry for the Naomi Campbell lookalike in the Santa mini-dress outfit at the back of the shopping centre connections stand - and the man on his own in the Doha Shopping Centre stand. The stands were either mobbed or dead. Some stands you just walk past really quickly - car-crash stands - places you will never want to visit, manned by people with dead eyes, glued to their Blackberries. The Place To "B" was still entirely deserted.

CBRE in particular was constantly busy - with a massive presence and a well designed stand, this was how it should be done. Generally, the agents' stands were the most buzzy -no real sense of the drama in the wider economy and the train just rattling on as usual - at least on the surface...

For us, the point is to talk talk talk - information gathering, meeting clients and contacts and just generally getting ourselves about. It sounds random, but you never know. Given that we pulled off a nine-figure deal last year through a MAPIC meeting, we know that it's worth going round just that one more time and perhaps speaking to that rather dull-looking person, who then turns out to have quite a lot to say, as well as being fantastically well-connected.

And now off to Foreman Roberts drinks at the Morrison's Bar. It could get messy. I do hope it does. Laters.

Nicky Richmond is joint managing partner and head of property finance at Brecher.

Guest blogger Nicky Richmond is at MAPIC

We started well. After laughing with scorn that my husband doesn't trust me to hold my own passport, I mislaid my boarding pass after it went through the bag x-ray machine. This was because I was on the phone to a client who didn't actually want to speak to me but who couldn't understand why my colleague wasn't picking up her phone. As lawyers, we are to be on call 24/7, even when our phones are going through an X-ray machine. Welcome to MAPIC.

So here we are again, MIPIM-lite, the old merry-go-round, hauling ourselves round the Exhibition Centre/Bunker, talking to luminaries from the world of retail, or more often, the person who has drawn the stand-duty short straw.

And they're all here, the retail boys. I notice that Russians have taken over the front of the Exhibition hall with a banner the size of, well, Russia. Not backwards in coming forward, there is no sign of Western European reticence. Impossibly glamorous women with cheekbones like razor blades man their stands, offering shots of vodka. At 10 am. I'm not their target audience to be fair, and they don't really register my presence.

Then out for a short four and a half hour lunch (on the beach, naturellement), with larger than life developer client, surrounded by super-agents, keener than the seagulls circling the tables, hoping to bring him the next big deal. Hearing about who's really doing what in what bit of Mayfair. Priceless.

Compelled to return to the bunker to get our money's worth, We were lured by the light show to "The place to "B"". With a huge sign splashed across the front of the Exhibition Centre and a stand that changed colour every 5 seconds they had clearly pushed the boat out. Not far enough. In fact, not a place to B when you've had a drink. It was empty. I won't be visiting "B"eaugrenelle and neither will you.

Similarly, I felt sorry for the sad girl fronting the stand for Sosnowiec. I almost had to go and have a piece of the limp cheese which had been sweating on the table for some hours, but there's only so much excitement you can have in one day. And now I have to get ready for the cocktail parties. Tonight, Savills and CBRE. At opposite ends of the same hotel, I'm sure they are delighted to be in the same venue, because they are all such good friends.

Nicky Richmond is joint managing partner and head of property finance at Brecher.

Guest blogger Nicky Richmond of niche property law firm Brecher is exasperated.  

At first, I was quite flattered by the fact that the Conservation Officer was taking photos of the interior of my property.  Perhaps they were impressed by the very beautiful original 17thC beams in the bedroom, or the magnificent walnut floor boards?  No.  They were recording the interior of the property so they had a photographic record for future reference. 

Given that making alterations to a listed building without consent is a criminal offence, I felt that they were collecting evidence to be used against me in the future.  And I wasn't too pleased about people taking photographs of the interior of my house without consent either.

And such confusion about listing.  As a lawyer, I tend to look at the legislation rather than what local authorities tell me on their websites.  The relevant law is contained in the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 to be exact.

It may surprise you, given the rather strict attitude of various local authorities to listed buildings, that the legislation is quite vague:

"... no person shall execute or cause to be executed works for the demolition of a listed building or for its alteration or extension in any manner

which would affect its character as a building of special archaeological or historical interest, unless the works authorised"

I have highlighted the relevant words i.e.

which would affect its character.  So far so simple.  But it's not simple at all.  The effect of the listing is to preserve the property in aspic at that particular moment, warts and all.  So that hideous 1970s extension?  Yes that's listed too.  We all know that now so, we look to our local authority for guidance.  Unfortunately every local authority website is very slightly different and can confuse even a seasoned professional, never mind your regular punter.  Take this from an inner London Council's website

"You may need to apply for Listed Building Consent if you would like to make any internal or external alterations to a listed building, particularly those which would affect its character or any historic fabric". 

So, you may need to apply.  Well, do you or don't you?  The truth is they will never really tell you categorically and instead of looking at the legislation and being able to make a sensible judgment as to whether or not the works contravene the legislation, they terrify you into making an application every time you want to make even the most minor changes. 

By way of example, I wanted to restore a fireplace which had been removed many years ago, leaving a gaping hole.  I had done my research and knew exactly what had been there originally and was planning to match it.

It appeared to me that the proposed alteration would not affect my property's character as a building of historical interest, or at least it would in a very positive way and as such, I thought I should not have to apply for Listed Building Consent for it. 

Being a cautious lawyer, however, mindful of the fact that the Conservation Officer had been round with his Canon camera, not to mention the swingeing sanctions for non-compliance, I thought I would just run it by my local Conservation Officer.  Oh dear.  In his view, any work which would affect the character of the property whether positively or negatively would be regarded as work requiring listed building consent.  Yes, it would seem that they are now happy to interpret the law and in a way which keeps them very busy.

So, in the end, faced with having to prepare a Design and Access statement, drawings and multiple copies of various inappropriate forms, not to mention being asked to pay a large fee (which was in my view wholly unjustified), I gave up, because, quite frankly it was too much hassle.  So the legislation shoots itself in the foot and the hole in my fireplace is still there.  That can't be right can it?  And as a lawyer, if I'm asked to advise as to whether an application for consent should be made, the answer always has to be yes, because "if in doubt" always applies now and that isn't right either.

Nicky Richmond is joint managing partner and head of property finance at Brecher, one of the most well-connected property law teams in London: if it's happening in the marketplace, Nicky and the team will know about it.

Photo by UggBoy via Flickr.