The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its UK growth forecast for 2025 from 1.1% to 1.2%, citing resilience in the global economy despite ongoing trade tensions.

Office for National Statistics reported that overall retail sales volumes rose by 0.9% in June, following a 2.8% fall in May.

Lambert Smith Hampton reports that UK real estate investment slipped to a two-year low in Q2, with just £8.8bn of transactions - 37% below the five-year quarterly average.

CBRE reports that UK retail warehouse investment volumes hit £1.5bn in H1 2025 – a 32% y/y increase.

Knight Frank reports c. £830n of investment in PBSA in Q2, taking H1 volumes to around £1.6bn, above the long-run average of £1.1bn.

Hammerson is paying CPP Investments | Investissements RPC £319m to acquire the remaining 50% interest in the Bullring and Grand Central shopping centres in Birmingham.

PGIM Real Estate has bought Manchester Fort shopping park from Nuveen, a TIAA company for c.£91m, reflecting a net initial yield of around 7.25%.

Bayes Business School reports that refinancing activity accounted for 65% of new commercial real estate lending across Europe in H1 2025, underscoring continued caution among lenders and limited transactional momentum.

Co-op is launching a new ‘on-the-go format,’ which will be around a quarter of the size of its typical convenience shops.

London & Continental Railways Limited and Network Rail’s property teams have been merged to create a new development company, Platform4, to deliver c.40,000 new homes over the coming decade on surplus railway land.

QuadReal Property Group has acquired an eight asset, 3,460 bed PBSA portfolio from funds and entities managed by Apollo Global Management, Inc. for a price believed to be >£500m.

A start-up company, earth4Earth, has launched environmentally friendly bricks which absorb and permanently store greenhouse gases. The bricks capture carbon dioxide from the air and are also manufactured using methods which do not produce it.

Mark Charlton – Real Estate Research Consultant at Waypoint