Mark Allan, CEO of FTSE 100 property giant Landsec, tells Will Bain that much of the narrative around the UK’s commercial property market isn’t quite right. Demand for office space is robust: businesses are signing 15 to 20 year leases, and firms that downsized after COVID are reversing course. Even the fear that artificial intelligence will trigger mass job losses isn’t materialising just yet in leasing behaviour.

He is bullish on the future of retail. Allan believes the shopping centre is firmly “back”, with sales and rents climbing again at major destinations such as Liverpool ONE and Bluewater. Retailers, he says, have become more selective - closing weaker sites while doubling down on the biggest and strongest locations. And with no new centres being built, the most successful ones are only becoming more valuable.

But Allan is blunt about the challenges facing large scale development in the UK. The affordable housing market won’t improve until private development becomes financially viable again. Rising construction costs, slow and unpredictable planning processes and persistently high interest rates are making major projects far harder to get off the ground.

His sharpest criticism, though, is for Westminster. Allan argues that political instability is damaging investor confidence and making long term planning extremely difficult. Allan says the business rates system is "crazily out of date". He welcomes the government’s ambition for planning reform, but says the UK keeps being dragged back into cycles of “permanent drama” that undermine efforts to fix the system.

Presenter: Will Bain Producer: Jeevan Nerwan Editor: Henry Jones

00:00 Sean and Will start pod 01:35 Mark Allan joins BBI 03:09 What does Landsec do? 04:56 Diversification into residential property 10:02 Gentrification 13:15 Investment outside of London and the South East 16:15 Affordable housing & planning 22:39 Demand for office space & AI 32:48 Shopping centres & the future of retail 39:43 Business rates 41:09: Government decision making & political instability 50:16 End of pod