Blog Post
Property funds: FCA's latest proposals for improving liquidity management
On 8 October 2018, the FCA published a consultation paper on illiquid assets and open-ended funds. The original discussion paper on this topic, from February 2017, looked at some of the risks that arise when open-ended investment funds invest mainly in inherently illiquid assets.
Blog Post
Please release me, let me go
Anyone who has worked in property finance for even a short period of time will have experienced the unhappy discord when negotiating releases. At a point when the finance documents are agreed and the conditions precedent are coagulating, the release mechanics have the potential to frustrate, if not obstruct, the flow of funds.
Blog Post
Just admiring the Review
After a few years living and working as a finance lawyer in Australia, there are a few things I brought with me back to the UK. Among the alarming spider's nests on the underside of our garden furniture and a passing interest in Aussie Rules football ("Go Bombers"), was an appreciation of some of the interesting market divergences in documenting loan transactions.
Blog Post
Real estate finance: a threat to national security?
The UK Government recently published proposals for a regime to review certain transactions that may pose a threat to the UK's national security.
Blog Post
Administrators are entitled to sell partly developed property free from secured interests
Williams and another v Broadoak Private Finance Ltd and others [2018] EWHC 1107 (Ch)
Blog Post
HS2 next stop Birmingham: Trending schemes for developers in a growth market
Fieldfisher is holding a Seminar for clients this Wednesday 13 June 2018 at the Fieldfisher Birmingham office to discuss the impact of HS2 on Real Estate development in Birmingham.
Blog Post
LIBOR: don't just sit there, do something!
It is the best part of a year since Andrew Bailey's speech set the financial markets on an apparent course to a brave new LIBOR-less world. It then took a few months before the industry (including the regulators) got together and put in place working groups and action plans to address the likely discontinuance of LIBOR.
Blog Post
Indemnity Insurance and Commercial Real Estate: Panacea or Snake Oil?
At a recent gathering to wave a former colleague off into retirement, I found myself in conversation with another who now specialises in indemnity insurance for the property sector. What began as a lightweight chat about the stress-relieving virtues of such products in residential conveyancing, turned into a thought-bending analysis of how insurance might be a solution to most, if not all of the risks inherent in commercial real estate (CRE).
Blog Post
New Welsh Land Transaction Tax replaces SDLT for acquisitions in Welsh land
Background The Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 ("LTT Act") became law in May of 2017 and is the second of three statutes to establish devolved tax arrangements in Wales under the Wales Act 2014 (the other two being the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 and the Landfill Disposals (Wales Act) Tax Act).
Blog Post
REFlections from La Croisette, MIPIM
For those attending MIPIM this year, despite the rain on the parade on Thursday, and feeling more subdued than before, there is an overarching sense of cautious optimism. That is not to say optimism that the market will grow fast or boom, rather, optimism that the market will not crash.