Real Estate

Recent Articles

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  14/07/2025

  England and Wales

  Sudden move to ban upwards only commercial rent reviews

  On 10 July 2025, without any prior warning, draft legislation was introduced in Parliament to ban a mainstay of the market, upwards only rent reviews (“UORR”) in commercial leases. The legislation is Schedule 31 to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (“the Bill”). It is currently at 2nd reading in the House of Commons and it applies to England and Wales. The changes will not apply retrospectively. There will be different implications for different sectors of the real estate market and the drafting will likely go through significant revision as it passes...

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  11/07/2025

  United Kingdom

  Court of Appeal considers RCOs and leaseholder protections under the Building Safety Act

  The Court of Appeal has earlier this week handed down two significant judgments on the Building Safety Act 2022 (the “BSA”), providing much-needed clarity on the scope of leaseholder protections and the operation of remediation contribution orders (“RCOs”). The judgments consider the retrospective effect of these legislative provisions as well as the “just and equitable” test for RCOs. These decisions will have a direct impact on landlords, leaseholders, developers, and those managing residential buildings affected by historic safety defects.Triathlon Homes LLP...

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  10/07/2025

  England and Wales

  Balancing rights of light and urban development: Takeaways from the Ludgate House judgment

  SummaryThe High Court has refused to grant an injunction to two residential leaseholders of flats in Bankside Lofts (the “Claimants”) who sought  to restrain interference with their rights of light by the Arbor Building (“Arbor”)  being part of the Native Land (the “Developer”) Bankside Yards development, instead awarding significant  ‘negotiating’ damages, albeit much lower than the Claimants sought, in a landmark rights of light decision (Cooper & Ors v Ludgate House Ltd [2025] EWHC 1724 (Ch)). Rights of light cases which...

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  09/07/2025

  United Kingdom

  Important legal change in the interplay of contractual and statutory break notices under the Electronic Com­mu­nic­a­tions Code

  SummaryOverturning a previous Upper Tribunal decision, the Court of Appeal has decided that where the service of a statutory termination notice under the Electronic Communications Code is based on a contractual break option within the Code agreement, the contractual break notice must be served and exercised validly in accordance with the agreement. The Code does not treat the agreement as terminated simply on the basis that the contractual break option is exercisable, without it actually having been exercised.The FactsIn ON Tower UK Limited v British Telecommunications PLC [4 July 2025], BT operated...

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  04/07/2025

  England and Wales

  Leasehold Reform 2025: Consultation on Implementing New Protections and Future Reforms

  Introduction On 4 July 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, in partnership with the Welsh Government, launched a comprehensive public consultation on the implementation of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (the “2024 Act”). The consultation seeks views on both the technical detail of new statutory requirements and on further reforms to strengthen protections for residential leaseholders and homeowners on freehold estates in England and Wales.Further detail about the 2024 Act can be found in our previous law-now, available here.Scope of the ConsultationThe...

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  03/07/2025

  Hungary

  Hungary empowers local governments to pass laws restricting acquisition of property

  A landmark law has come into force in Hungary, which grants local communities unprecedented powers to "safeguard their cultural identity and social fabric in the face of rapid demographic changes" by imposing restrictions on moving to the relevant municipality. Effective from 1 July 2025, the Law on Protecting Local Community Identity is designed to address concerns over mass immigration and speculative property purchases, which have threatened to alter the traditional character of towns and villages in some areas, especially in the Budapest agglomeration and along Lake Balaton.The new legislation...

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