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Real Estate

With a recently strong UK real estate market struggling to keep up with demand, competition for prime assets is higher than ever. In addition to availability, landlords, developers, asset managers, investors and occupiers face a range of challenges and opportunities in the current climate. These include the increasing globalisation of the real estate investment market, the growing demand for а high quality built environment with continued focus on achieving sustainability, and the increased use of technology and rising cyber security risks.

With one of the largest real estate teams in the UK, we have the resource and expertise our clients need to respond to this fast-paced market. Our lawyers provide decisive, pragmatic solutions allowing clients to react quickly to seize opportunities. With dedicated planning, finance, tax, construction and dispute specialists as part of the group, we are able to ensure that our clients are realising the most value possible from their assets.

We are delighted to have maintained a Tier 1 ranking for Real Estate categories in the recently published Chambers and Legal 500 UK 2023 directories.

We are one of the few City-based firms able to offer clients a truly full UK-wide service with offices in London, Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Reading, Liverpool and Sheffield.

In addition to our UK offering, the CMS Real Estate Sector practice is the largest real estate specialist team in Europe and one of the biggest worldwide, providing full-service legal assistance in all real estate matters. We have over 800 lawyers, spanning across 73 offices worldwide, the CMS Real Estate Practice is one of the largest specialist teams worldwide.

We are very proud to be working with some of the most dynamic real estate businesses around at the moment. Our clients range from large international and private investors to developers, universities, utility providers and occupiers.

"The team is one of the best teams that I ever collaborated with. The CMS real estate team is always available, deals with the toughest deadlines and delivers the best quality."

Legal 500, 2023

"With a real depth of experience and an impressive breadth of resources - CMS is hands down one of the strongest firms in the global real estate industry."

Legal 500, 2018

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Construction
Whether you are an em­ploy­er/own­er, contractor, fun­der/in­vestor or you are buying an interest in a project that is under construction or has recently b
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Planning
We are one of the largest planning teams in the UK with over 30 specialist lawyers. We are motivated by a passion to help to create exceptional places
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PropTech
The real estate industry is currently going through an un­pre­ced­en­ted phase of digital trans­form­a­tion against the backdrop of ‘the fourth industr
commercial office buildings
Real Estate
With a recently strong UK real estate market struggling to keep up with demand, competition for prime assets is higher than ever. In addition to avail
building construction and cranes
Real Estate & Planning Disputes
As a developer, landlord, contractor or occupier, when a real estate project or transaction becomes contentious, it is essential that matters be dealt
Building site scaffolding
Real Estate Development
Competition for sites, access to funding, changing legislation, achieving planning consent, rights to light issues and community in­fra­struc­ture levy a
mound of yellow pipes
Real Estate Energy
We are one of the few Lon­don-headquartered real estate groups to have a dedicated real estate energy team. With a mar­ket-lead­ing energy practice, we p
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Real Estate Finance
The real estate finance market has undergone significant change in recent years, with increased regulation, the entrance of more categories of lenders
crane against blue sky
Real Estate Investment
With demand for prime assets higher than ever, real estate investment is becoming an increasingly global market. Being able to respond quickly to inve
glass constructed building
Real Estate Occupiers
As an occupier in today’s market, there are a number of key issues to consider. These include establishing strategies for disposal of surplus pr
white buildings with angled windows
Real Estate PRS
Residential property in the UK has never seemed a more attractive investment. With a shortage of quality rental properties available and development s
Keys lying on a floorplan
Residential Real Estate
CMS’ Residential Real Estate practice has extensive experience and offers pro-active and tailored advice, handling a broad range of work for com
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Student Ac­com­mod­a­tion
Student housing has moved from the “al­tern­at­ive” asset class firmly into the mainstream in recent years. Whilst student housing is a high
Law-Now: Real Estate & Construction
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Advising the Board
01/09/2022
ESG Hub
ESG factors have moved from being a niche concern to a strategic board level priority across all sectors and jur­is­dic­tions. Whether a business is a financial institution, an energy company, or a tech start-up – all companies with a future must now focus on ESG as a business im­per­at­ive. 

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22/09/2023
CMS celebrates success at the 2023 Legal Business Awards
In­ter­na­tion­al law firm CMS was named Real Estate Team of the Year at the 2023 Legal Business Awards Ceremony, held in London. CMS was also Highly Commended in the Commercial Litigation Team of the Year...
18/09/2023
2 Week Reminder: deadline to register higher-risk occupied buildings
By way of update to our previous article and client briefing, The Building Safety (Re­gis­tra­tion of Higher-Risk Buildings and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023 are now in force and the deadline...
13/09/2023
What’s all the RAAC-et about?
Concerns around Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (“RAAC”) have become increasingly widespread since the Department for Education recently issued new guidance on the material’s management in...
12/09/2023
CMS European Class Actions Report 2023
Data-driven insights into class action risk across Europe, a key concern for major corporates
11/09/2023
CMS Annual Review of English Construction Law De­vel­op­ments: An In­ter­na­tion­al...
We are pleased to announce the publication of the 2023 edition of our in­ter­na­tion­ally focused Annual Review of English Construction Law De­vel­op­ments. Now in its thirteenth year, the Annual Review sum­mar­ises...
07/09/2023
NPPF updates – Any way the wind blows…?
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is an important piece of UK Government policy, which sets out various planning policies for England and details how these should be applied by local planning...
04/09/2023
Planning conditions vs permitted development rights relevant to changes...
SummaryThis Law-Now considers a recent case which addressed the cir­cum­stances in which the range of uses allowed by Class E could be limited by a planning condition which restricted the use of premises...
04/09/2023
The new IChemE Blue Book for EPCM contracting
Earlier this year, the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) added a standard form Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) Contract, the Blue Book, to their suite. This is the...
30/08/2023
CBAM Implementing Regulation and Extensive Additional Reporting Guidance...
Earlier this month, the European Commission (“EC”) adopted an Implementing Regulation (“IR”) and released extensive Guidance Documents (“Guid­ance”) on the prac­tic­al­it­ies of reporting re­quire­ments...
15/08/2023
CMS advises Legal & General on the UK’s biggest investment in ground source...
CMS has advised Legal & General Capital (Legal & General) on its further investment in The Kensa Group (Kensa), together with Octopus Energy (Oc­topus). Kensa is the UK’s lead­ing manufacturer and installer...
11/08/2023
Serial ad­ju­dic­a­tions: the Court of Appeal provides clarity
A recent Court of Appeal judgment has overturned a TCC decision as to whether an adjudicator was bound by a previous adjudication decision as to the existence of Relevant Events justifying an extension...
09/08/2023
Luxembourg ratifies amendments to UK-Lux­em­bourg tax treaty - key con­sid­er­a­tions...
On 19 July 2023 Luxembourg ratified the text of the new tax treaty between the UK and Luxembourg (the Treaty). The UK ratified the Treaty last year. Changes that we addressed in our previous article will...