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The U.K. reporting has been a lot more sensationalist than what we’ve seen here in Bordeaux.

16 years since my last visit here #bordeaux

New blog post: No, Manchester did not build more homes than Greater London last year jamesjgleeson.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/n...

Nothing other than the occasional smell of smoke and having to go to a different climbing centre than the one we planned to today. I saw Loch Morlich was closed which was a favourite paddle boarding spot for us.

Swapped our usual holiday in the highlands for Bordeaux this year! (though the weather today is a lot cooler and has been raining a fair bit too)

Never been happier to see heavy rain on my summer holiday #bordeaux

My latest column:

‘The Wang Fuk Court fire was preventable but not prevented. It was foreseeable but not foreseen’ www.ft.com/content/b0dc... ‘Litany of failures’ behind Hong Kong’s worst tragedy in decades

Yeah, that seems to be the consensus amongst housing people.

Met John Healey at a housing event years ago and learnt an important life lesson: never eat a flaky croissant at events where you might be suddenly introduced to someone. (he was kind enough to ignore all the crumbs)

If you want to do something big on council/social housing, you could do a lot worse than John Healey as your Chancellor.

“build baby build”!

2000s was nothing compared to the 1980s for high LTV lending. bsky.app/profile/resi...

Guess airbnbs are about to get very cheap in university towns over the summer

Suggests we're looking at a big increase in voids for student landlords, with no rent over the summer.

Interesting impact of the renters' rights act noted in Foxtons trading update yesterday, with students using it to end their tenancies early.

London:

And now the problem in Manchester and other cities across the UK is that far fewer people are buying "luxury flats" these days. So fewer are getting built.

Job opportunity! The Greater London Authority is looking for a senior housing analyst to help a brilliant policy team tackle London's greatest challenge. Applications close on August 3rd www.london.gov.uk/senior-analy...

Sure, we can build them. But the problem right now is that there's no one buying them.