Here is an extract from my blog on Property Week:

January 2012

In days gone by, before the Sunday trading laws changed, the only real shopping you can could do was at corner shops, newsagents, petrol stations, garden centres and car boot sales. Generally speaking Sunday was a day of rest for retailers and the shopping public.

Due to curiosity, and the fact that it's only a few minutes away on the tube from Bank, Kate and I have today wizzed down to have a look at Westfield Straford on its opening day.

The crowds were huge - as you would expect - and simply moving around became quite difficult. Imagine Oxford Street on the last Saturday before Christmas and you'll have quite a good idea of what it was like. Except it was much warmer than December.

The video below gives you an idea of the size of the crowd.At times the security teams were redirecting shoppers in a one way system.

An interesting report has been issued today by CREOpoint and KPMG regarding the online "buzz" surrounding last week's MIPIM - the "world's premier real estate event".

The study looked at 10,000 online "articles, blogs, videos and social media mentions relating to commercial real estate" to analyse what was being talked about in relation to MIPIM.

This blog was posted on Property Week on 14 March 2011.

If you would like to read it in full - please visit Property Week blog

If nothing else, the arrest of the Tchenguiz brothers on the 9th of March illustrated just how deeply digital communication has become embedded in the property sector. My abiding memory of MIPIM 2011 will be the astonished conversations that morning, most of which seemed to start with the passing of a smart phone and the question: “Have you seen this?!”

This is part of a blog posted on Property Week on 1 Mar 2011

If you want to read it in full - follow this link: Property Week blog.

In the past week Google, the world’s favourite search engine, has made some “pretty big” changes to its search algorithm in a move targeting “low quality” websites and punishing them by reducing their search engine rankings.