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Property Week

Prince Charles’s £1bn fund launch

The Prince of Wales is to set up a £1bn fund to invest in urban regeneration and sustainable property.

The prince, advised by Credit Suisse, has appointed several property figures to set up the fund Tellesma.

A third of the fund will be owned by the 19 charities backed by the price, which include the Prince’s Trust.

The other two-thirds will be owned by the investors that are being approached, who are thought to be Middle Eastern.

Ian Henderson, former chief executive of Land Securities, will be chairman. His team will include Mark Collings, who worked with him at LandSecs as chief operating officer; John Anderson, former managing director of Bovis Europe; and former PricewaterhouseCoopers director Paul Harries.

The Foundation for the Built Environment will be a consultant for the fund.

Europa Capital co-founder Noel Manns

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The UK property industry has underestimated the effects of the credit crisis which will be longer and deeper than many predict, says fund manager Europa Capital.
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As you wander around the open building site that is the Square Mile, it is impossible not to ask the question. What, precisely, are we going to do with all these buildings once they are finished?

There is, according to the City Corporation, 7 million sq ft under construction in the City, about 8 per cent of its total office space. This is an underestimate, as it does not include some vast schemes not yet started.

This huge expansion in City premises has coincided with the worst downturn in a decade and a half for those financial institutions that might be expected to occupy them. It is hard for even the most optimistic developer to claim that, two or three years hence when all these offices are built, those institutions will be back in the market.