Capturing lightning in a bottle: As fast-growing San Francisco concludes its largest rezoning in 10 years, will its novel new urban-planning guidelines for South of Market represent what the city's downtown needs in a fast-moving business, cultural and economic environment? In early December 2018, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave final approval of the "Central SOMA Plan," (the Plan) resulting in the largest rezoning of the commercial heart of the city since the renowned Downt
San Francisco Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Rafael Mandelman introduced the "Housing Preservation and Expansion Reform Act" in December 2018, a proposed law which hopes to limit major renovations and demolitions plus limit the size of newly built or newly altered residential structures. The two sponsors believe the current process results in too many larger units and demolitions, and that there is a connection between the two ...
On July 18, the Board of Supervisors passed a new law that changes the affordable housing requirements relating to the construction of market rate units. The new law affects new market rate housing developments of 25 or more dwellings units and expands the amount of affordable housing that will be oriented toward the middle income wage earner ...
On April 16, 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA). The Mayor signed the legislation on May 3, 2019. COPA grants certain qualified nonprofit organizations the right of first offer and right of first refusal on sales of privately-owned buildings with three or more residential units and privately-owned property on which three or more residential units could be built ...
Key Points: SF Major extends commercial eviction moratorium through May 17, 2020. Moratorium applies only to commercial tenants registered to do business in San Francisco meeting certain requirements. Moratorium applies to all attempts to recover possession due to non-payment. Moratorium covers security deposits ...
The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) received Royal Assent in April 2022. Its aim is to improve building safety across the built environment, with a focus on the residential sector. The BSA is being implemented in stages and a number of areas within the living sector fall under its regulatory umbrella. The government recently confirmed its intention for purpose-built student accommodation to be subject to the new regulatory regime ...
Although the Czech real estate market has recently witnessed several significant deals (see Attractive Real Estate Business in the Czech Republic), there is definitely still great potential in the Czech Republic for future investors. Correspondingly, according to the latest figures, it seems that even a forecast of a 6% price increase will be surpassed in 2015 ...
This week the government has published the draft legislation for the residential property developer tax (“RPDT”) for technical consultation. RPDT is a new tax, intended to be imposed on companies carrying out residential property development from 1 April 2022, and described by the government as being introduced “to ensure that the largest developers make a fair contribution to help fund the government’s cladding remediation costs” ...
Bringing together leading developers, agents, operators, design specialists, as well as policy and legal experts, Shoosmiths hosts a roundtable discussion on meeting the real estate demands of the UK’s life sciences sector ...
Shoosmiths hosts a roundtable covering the partnerships model in the UK's living sector, as part of the UKAA’s Annual Build to Rent Conference 2023. As the UK’s residential market navigates economic challenges, including the impact of elevated interest rates and borrowing costs, many real estate businesses are now exploring partnerships ...
We all need our town centres. But more than that, we need our town centres to work better for us. As consumers grow increasingly comfortable with online shopping, the realisation that our towns are over-reliant on retail is being played out at a national level. No longer can we expect empty retail units to be snapped up by new tenants in a matter of weeks ...
When negotiating a complex change order or preparing to litigate a claim, calculating actual recoverable costs incurred can be a difficult exercise. You will want to first review your contract to determine what kinds of costs are compensable. For example, the change order provision of your contract may provide a specific markup that can be included in a change request or limit the recovery of indirect costs and overhead associated with a change ...
After Atlanta-based developer, Carter USA, pulled out as the master developer of the Banks Project along Cincinnati’s riverfront, the project effectively stalled. However, the Joint Banks Steering Committee (JBSC), charged with offering recommendations with respect to this project, reconvened January 23, 2018 to take two actions ...
The much-awaited Renters (Reform) Bill received its first reading in the House of Commons last week, on Wednesday 17 May 2023. After five years of consultation and refinement, the reforms aim to improve the leasehold system through increased regulation, digitisation and standardisation. The Bill seeks to provide greater flexibility and security for residential tenants by imposing additional restrictions on private landlords ...
In recent days, the CFPB has taken significant actions that will have a lasting impact on mortgage servicers. First, on April 1, the CFPB issued Bulletin 2021-02, warning servicers that being “unprepared is unacceptable.” This bulletin provides important insight into the CFPB’s supervision and enforcement priorities related to servicers’ handling of the COVID-19 crisis ...
A West Virginia federal district court recently addressed a plaintiff’s claims that her reverse mortgage violated at least two statutes and West Virginia common law. The plaintiff was one of two borrowers on that mortgage and sued the mortgage lender and its servicing affiliate. The servicer moved to dismiss. The court granted the motion in part and denied it in part ...
It is difficult to capture in a sentence the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on our health, our families, our fears, the operations of businesses of all sizes, the world’s governments, and our future. Not one segment of people or group of businesses has reported the pandemic is not affecting them. It therefore should not come as a surprise that the reverse mortgage industry is feeling the effects of the pandemic ...
Legislation about retainage has become common place as many states have adopted different limitations, requirements, and schemes. A recent case in Tennessee is a good reminder that you must pay attention to all of the relevant state’s requirements. Failure to do so can be costly. In Snake Steel, Inc. v. Holladay Construction Group, LLC, the Tennessee Supreme Court recently addressed Tennessee's retainage requirements ...
Since February 2022, Russia has adopted a number of regulations that aim to restrict real estate transactions involving persons/entities from certain foreign states. Such transactions require specific governmental approval prior to their conclusion. Further regulation has provided a number of exceptions to the previous prohibitions ...
The government is pushing ahead with the establishment of a Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) provided for under s.126 and 129 of the Building Safety Act 2022. The Scheme is initially aimed at major housebuilders and other large developers that have developed or refurbished multiple residential buildings that are known to have life-critical fire safety defects ...
The key objective of the Building Safety Act 2022 is to improve building safety across the built environment, with a particular focus on the residential sector. The BSA received Royal Assent in April 2022 and will be implemented in stages ...
The media frequently reports on the ‘UK housing crisis’ and how increased building is required to satisfy current housing demands ...
Chances are your business has been interrupted by the Coronavirus epidemic, and if you rent space, you are considering how to obtain rent concessions from your landlord. Most likely, your lease will not give you an express right to rent abatement if your use is precluded by a "shelter-in-place" order or other government action ...
It is still possible to regain property expropriated by the state after the Second World War, and in some cases compensation is awarded instead. Real estate in Poland was expropriated by the state on a massive scale. This was done by operation of law or through administrative orders, which in most cases were issued in violation of the law in force at that time ...
In past years, we have advised clients that as long as no unit in a multi-unit new condominium project is rented before its condominium map is recorded, later sales of units do not fall under the city's condominium conversion ordinance, which does not at this time allow conversion of buildings of more than two units ...
