Home / Insight / Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Legal and commercial implications

Go to International

The impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. Officially declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation in March 2020, everyone’s primary concern is to minimise the spread of the virus, to mitigate its effects and to protect those most vulnerable in society.

Businesses and organisations have a role to play and a responsibility to their own people. They also confront a wide range of practical, commercial and legal challenges associated with the spread of the virus. 

Rebound and Remodel Insights

Visit our Rebound and Remodel Insight section to find out more about how businesses have used tools to adapt to future challenges and make the most of opportunities caused by Covid-19.

Covid-19 Liquidity, Debt and Employment Measures briefing

The Covid-19 Liquidity, Debt and Employment Measures briefing can be viewed and downloaded here. The briefing contains information about the following: liquidity and working capital support, debt support, tax measures, support for employers and workers. 

 The following insights bring together perspectives on the legal and commercial issues affecting businesses across the globe.

Subscribe to Law-Now for more Coronavirus (COVID-19) content

You can also subscribe to Law-Now to get legal content related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) articles delivered to you via email.

CMS UK Announcement about COVID-secure risk assessment

CMS has undertaken a COVID-19 risk assessment to ensure its workplaces and operations are COVID-secure.  Affirmation of the completed assessment can be found here. 

Feed

28/06/2023
Tomorrow
Taking the long view Even in challenging times, real estate investors continue to have a strong degree of confidence in the future of the sector.
27/06/2023
Covid-19 Business Interruption – At the Premises disease clauses
It is now over two years since the Supreme Court’s judgment in the FCA Test Case on non-damage business interruption (BI) cover for losses arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and English Courts are still...
14/06/2023
Sustainable offices and EPC requirements
Investors may be moving towards the view that making offices sustainable does not necessarily equate to higher costs for occupiers.
14/06/2023
London
The majority of UK real estate professionals continue to believe that London is overvalued. As our chart shows, this is very much business as usual. Over the past eight years, only 2021 - when investors began to wonder what a post-covid market might look like - has challenged the status quo. Even then, what we saw was only a significant narrowing of the gap, not a reversal. In this year’s polling, 62% of our respondents feel London is overvalued, as opposed to 6% who believe it is undervalued. These are the most bearish numbers we have seen since pre‑Brexit days.
14/06/2023
The view from the UK
Every year we ask a cross-section of leading UK real estate professionals for their views on the market. This year we polled 270 experts, including 62 investors and 54 developers. In many ways they share the outlook of the global investors we surveyed, with long-term confidence tempered by short-term concerns. Overall, 38% reported feeling optimistic about the market, while 34% describe themselves as neutral and 28% are pessimistic. Although positive, this take on the market is unsurprisingly more cautious than the one we found 12 months ago, with sentiment falling back to levels last seen at the beginning of the pandemic as the more bullish outlook of the past two years recedes.
14/06/2023
Global cities
As our chart shows, the genuinely ‘global’ cities remain the most appealing (albeit by slim margins), with the top four slots going to London, Paris, Tokyo and New York.
14/06/2023
The big picture
Despite a difficult year and an uncertain outlook, we found strong underlying positives among investors globally.
06/06/2023
Technology
Many in the real estate industry are keen to embrace technological innovations, including the latest green technologies.
06/06/2023
Future Planning?
One thing nearly all our UK respondents agree on is that the planning system is not working and needs investment. A massive 90% say the system is slowing down real estate development, while 93% reckon it is under-resourced.
06/06/2023
Finance
There is general agreement that, in the short term, financing is getting harder – with 70% of UK real estate professionals believing it will become more difficult to access debt over the next 12 months.
06/06/2023
Sustainability
  
06/06/2023
Survey methodology
Investors (online polling between 28 April and 3 May 2023) n=1,002 global institutional in­vestors. Res­ults were weighted by region to ensure comparability with previous results. In­dustry (on­line polling between 21 April and 10 May 2023) n=270 professionals in the UK real estate in­dustry. Res­ults were weighted by role to ensure comparability with previous results.