Real Estate | Commercial Property
Our dynamic and commercial property team has a real insight into the key issues in commercial property transactions, but this is only part of the story. Every client is different and we work with each client to understand their objectives. Our cross-disciplinary teams identify the right structures and provide the essential advice and high-quality due diligence required to achieve our clients’ objectives, minimising risk and maximising returns.
Our expertise:
sales and purchases
sales and leasebacks
portfolio management
lettings
development
tax planning
Commercial property investment and development often work hand in hand, involving development of new products and refurbishing existing buildings. Our teams provide the dynamic property advice that is required as well as delivering the practical solutions to the drafting and negotiation of construction contracts and appointments, together with ancillary documentation such as warranties, bonds and guarantees.
Tax structuring is an essential element of both investment acquisitions and development, and our tax team is highly experienced in delivery of key tax solutions. With clients comprising builders, property developers, main contractors, specialist contractors, trade and professional associations, local authorities and professional consultants, we are well placed to deliver essential advice. If problems later arise, we have the capability to bring our considerable dispute-resolution experience to bear in resolving contractual and other issues.
Our experience:
acting for a developer of a large, mixed-use scheme including a marina (£50m development cost)
advising the liquidators on the sale of a multi-let investment property in central London for a consideration in excess of £100m
advising on the disposal of a central London retail “trophy asset” by an overseas investor
Occupiers
Corporate occupiers of commercial real estate face a raft of pressures arising from taking, occupying and exiting premises.
Our Real Estate team, working closely with the Construction, Corporate, Planning, Tax and Disputes teams, provides a wide range of advice necessary to help our clients to take on new space, alter it, and dispose of all or part of it as and when necessary to achieve their business objectives. Our advice on planning considerations may also be a significant factor in decisions relating to expansion of an occupier's business.
Our work includes purchasing and disposing, leasing, lease renewals, lease re-gearing, alterations and portfolio restructuring, as well as corporate mergers and acquisitions, and includes advising on personal and corporate guarantees, and rent deposits as security.
Our experience:
acting for a furniture retailer in the acquisition and disposal of large high street stores
advising various retail chains in the management of their portfolios
advising an international company on the relocation of its UK headquarters
Related Expertise
Our Team
News & Insights
This County Court lease renewal case under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“LTA 1954”) relates to the tenant’s attempt to include a break clause in a renewal lease and is a notable application of the Court’s approach to determining renewal lease terms set out in the leading case of O'May v City of London Real Property Co Ltd [1983] AC 726 (“O’May”).
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has, today, published its final phase of the report to examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire at Grenfell Tower on the night of 14 June 2017. The report highlights significant deficiencies in the current building safety regulations and is likely to have a major impact on the construction industry, manufacturers and property owners.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (“the Act”) introduces several significant changes affecting enfranchisement, making it easier and more cost-effective for residential leaseholders to extend their leases or purchase the freehold of their properties. The key impacts on enfranchisement are set out in this article.
A Laytons’ team of real estate lawyers will be in Cannes during MIPIM from 12-15 March 2024. Please use the form to contact us if you would like to arrange a meeting in Cannes during these dates.
A flying freehold has no relationship to a flying fortress (a US Boeing engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930’s) but is an English legal term to describe a freehold which overhangs (or underlies) another freehold. There is a counterpart situation known as a creeping freehold, for example, a basement or cellar belonging to one freehold underlies a different freehold at ground level.
We are pleased to share that Honey Dave has been appointed the Head of the India Desk at Laytons ETL.
Save the date for our upcoming Legal Insights seminar on Stamp Duty Land Tax. On 29th June, Laytons ETL Partners, Honey and Marc, will explore all you need to know about SDLT.
We are delighted to share that Laytons ETL Partner, David Lewis, has been appointed Head of Real Estate.
We are delighted to share that Honey Dave has been appointed Partner. Honey qualified as a Licensed Conveyancer in 2009, and is proficient in dealing with both residential and commercial transactions. Having joined Laytons in 2021, we are excited to see what Honey achieves as she progresses into her new position!
Tax Partner, Marc Selby has been featured in Telegraph Money in an article highlighting home buyers using a “granny annexe loophole” to cut their stamp duty bill have faced a crackdown from the taxman amid a rise in false claims.
We understand that dealing with your family affairs requires more than just sound advice and technical excellence. We invest the time to get to know our clients’ circumstances, needs and preferences to deliver commercially informed and practical results for you.
In an attempt to crackdown on foreign criminals using property to launder money, the UK government has, for a number of years, attempted to introduce a register of those overseas entities which hold UK property.
A receiver is an individual (or those acting jointly) appointed by a creditor that holds a charge over the assets of a debtor to take custody of the charged assets, manage those assets and receive the income from them. Usually, a receiver will also have the power to sell the assets and to apply the proceeds of sale in satisfaction of the secured debt.
In May 2019, the Court of Appeal upheld the 2018 High Court decision to quash a local authority’s registration of land as a town or village green. The Court of Appeal held that the adopted core strategy policies of the local authority gave rise to a trigger event that precluded the local authority from registering the land as a town or village green.
Usually a ransom strip is a strip of land lying between an adopted highway with public rights of way and a property or land and where crossing that land or laying services beneath that land could represent a trespass on the part of the owner of the property cut off from the Highway by the ransom strip.
Freehold land typically encompasses all the land below and above it (divided vertically), which in practice means that standard freeholds do not cross or overlap. A flying freehold is a freehold property which overhangs or projects (flies) above or below an adjoining freehold property.
We have lived with the NPPF since 2012. Generally welcomed by the development industry, will the changes to the NPPF, now embodied in the 2018 framework, going to make a material difference in addressing housing delivery problems?
This update comments on the latest developments including the shortening of filing and payment window to 14 days from the effective date, what is a “major interest”?, bare trusts and first time buyer’s relief and the Supreme Court decision in Project Blue.
The significance of the NPPF was as much the fact that it put together in one place all of central government’s planning policies. It is not perfect, but some of those imperfections stem from the fact that voters are wedded to concepts such as the Green Belt which add to the problems of housing delivery in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Modular construction is a method of building in ‘module’ sections from an off-site facility. The prefabricated parts are transported to and constructed on site and the finished product is referred to as ‘prefab’ or, more recently, modular housing.