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US Leads Global Advanced Biofuels Market
The US is the dominant force in the advanced biofuels market, with 67 percent of current global projects based in America, according to a study by Navigant Research. The US’ Renewable Fuel Standard, which calls for 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuel production by 2022, will help keep the US at the epicenter of the market in the coming years, according to Advanced Biofuels Country Rankings. However, emerging opportunities for advanced biofuels growth, across a diverse range of non-food feedstocks and conversion platforms, are beginning to coalesce in a number of countries outside the US, the report says. Growth in advanced biorefinery infrastructure will be moderate through 2015, according to the report, as new commercial facilities seek to demonstrate viability at scale and government support retreats from post-stimulus highs across the US, Europe and China. Over the medium term (2015-2018), however, a wave of retrofits and capital light deployments co-located alongside conventional biorefinery infrastructure is expected to usher in an expansion of advanced biorefinery capacity, followed by an increase in greenfield projects, the report says. In other biofuels news, Chempolis, a Finland-based biorefining technology corporation, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian oil and exploration company ONGC that investigates building India’s first biorefinery project. Further to the first biorefinery, Chempolis and ONGC are targeting at larger production of sustainable biofuels in India. California-based biofuels company Biosynthetic Technologies has announced that operations of its demonstration production plant within chemical company Albemarle’s existing Baton Rouge facility have commenced. Biosynthetic Technologies is now moving forward with development of a full-scale commercial production plant. Additionally, Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad has launched a public-private partnership that aims to expand the market for mid-level biofuels blends. Through the use of current funding, “Fueling Our Future” aims to establish more blender pumps containing petroleum with a high ethanol content and biodiesel at gas retailers around the state. According to research released this week by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory there is no evidence that petroleum blends containing higher amounts of ethanol cause damage to engines, contradicting an earlier study. The NREL study found that the available literature did not show any “meaningful differences” between a 15 percent ethanol blend, or “E15,” and a 10 percent blend, or “E10,” in “any performance category,” directly conflicting a controversial study released by Coordinating Research Council earlier this year. Continue reading
House Rules: Property Law And Tax Breaks In France
http://www.ft.com/cm…l#ixzz2iRxQz9FB By Raphaël Béra and Fiona Larcombe, of international law firm SJ Berwin 1. New French property tax Foreign residents who want to sell French property have a one-off chance of a big tax saving if they act quickly. So what’s changed? Over the summer, the French Tax Administration brought in new rules to reduce tax on capital gains on French real estate. As well as long-term reductions in tax rates, there is a one-off allowance of 25 per cent on capital gains from the sale of properties between September 1 2013 and August 31 2014. Why this reform? At present, capital gains on French property are only exempt from tax after 30 years of ownership, which discourages people from selling. The French government hopes that the new rules will stimulate the housing market, encourage more sales and reduce prices. Who will benefit? Individuals who own French real estate. The new regime also applies where French property is owned by a tax transparent entity. It does not apply to companies that are subject to corporate tax and own French property, who will still pay French corporate income tax at a basic rate of 33.33 per cent. Are any types of land excluded? Yes. The new rules do not apply to capital gains on the sale of building plots. What are the main changes? Currently, capital gains made on French real estate by people resident outside France are subject to French income tax, specific taxes on high gains (up to 6 per cent on gains above €50,000), and high income (up to 4 per cent on income above €250,000), and social contributions. The new regime increases annual allowances with each year of ownership and applies them faster. Allowances start after the fifth year of ownership and increase annually. After 22 years, capital gains are exempt from income tax, eight years earlier than under the old rules. What about social security contributions? Since August 17 2012, owners of French real estate who are not resident in France have been subject to French social security contributions at 15.5 per cent on real estate capital gains. The allowance applied before calculating these contributions has also changed, so that contributions decrease annually after five years’ ownership, until the property owner becomes exempt after 30 years. The imposition of French social security contributions on non-residents is, in any case, questionable, because they pay social security contributions in their own country, and the regime was recently challenged by the EU Commission. People resident outside France who are asked to pay social security contributions should consider filing tax claims against the French tax authorities. Act quickly. To take advantage of all the new allowances, property sales should be completed by August 31 2014. But bear in mind that the French tax system is complex. Property gains are subject to multiple layers of tax and social contributions, so you need an accurate calculation of your potential liability. . . . 2. Chancel repair liability and other ancient rights When I bought my house, my solicitor advised me to buy insurance against chancel repair liability. What was that for? Chancel repair goes back to the time of Henry VIII. It is the right for some churches to ask some landowners to pay for the upkeep of part of the church. It is an ancient right that still affects landowners in England and Wales today. In a high profile case that took 17 years to resolve, one couple was held liable to pay more than £200,000. There was nothing about it on the Land Registry records for my property, so why did I need insurance? Until October 13 this year, chancel repair liability could affect a property owner even if it was not registered at the Land Registry, so people often bought insurance just in case. The historical records are unreliable, so it was hard to be certain about which properties were affected. So that’s why I’ve read about the Church suddenly registering rights over people’s land. What changed on October 13? Today, chancel repair should only affect people who buy a house if the Church has registered its right at the Land Registry. If there is no mention of chancel repair in the Land Registry documents at the time you buy, you can be fairly sure that you don’t need to worry about it. Can everyone forget about it then? Not quite. People who buy and should be safe, but those who become landowners without paying anything – by inheriting, for example – are still vulnerable. In those cases, it may still be sensible to investigate chancel repair liability and buy insurance if necessary. There’s been a rush to register rights to minerals in the subsoil below other people’s land? Yes, that’s true. The right of the “lord of the manor” to minerals has existed for hundreds of years but also had to be registered by October 13 in order to bind future buyers. It doesn’t mean whoever is registered will make a fortune if any valuable minerals are found. Oil and shale gas belong to the Crown, regardless of who owns the land. People who own or have rights over the subsoil may be able to charge for allowing access to investigate and extract minerals but so far, the courts have awarded relatively small sums. SJ Berwin is an international law firm. This column is written by Raphaël Béra, a partner in its Paris office, and Fiona Larcombe, a solicitor in its London office Continue reading
Property Investors Warm Up To UK Regional Opportunities
http://www.ft.com/cm…l#ixzz2iRueiSOU October 16, 2013 11:47 Property investors warm up to UK regional opportunities By Kate Allen England’s regional commercial property markets are once again starting to gain interest from investors. Regional commercial property has been deeply unpopular as an asset class in the past few years, in sharp contrast to the boom in London. But, according to analysts, this is beginning to change. “Now might be a good time to look at the unfashionable regions,” says Mat Oakley, director of commercial research at Savills, the estate agency. “Office take-up rose in the first half of 2013 across the majority of [English] cities and availability is falling. The proportion of investment that is outside London also rose in the first half of 2013.” Take-up in the first half of 2013 is nearly a quarter higher than the long-term average, according to CBRE, the commercial property group, with more than 3.8m square feet acquired by occupiers. Adrian McStay, CBRE national team managing director, says that Leeds, Manchester and Bristol have fared particularly well. “Since March we’ve seen a good uptick in both occupation and investment. Big corporate [tenants] have strong balance sheets and are now looking at their real estate strategies,” he says. We have seen a real move out into the regions, not just by UK money but also overseas investment. Two years ago you couldn’t even find a buyer for some regional offices. – John Slade, BNP Paribas Real Estate chief executive There are three main reasons for investors’ change of heart towards the regions. First, the UK’s economy has begun to claw its way back to growth this year, rising 0.7 per cent in the first half, which is feeding through to demand for office space. Intense competition among investors in the London market is also pushing demand outwards in a search for other opportunities. Third, supply is falling as new development remains frozen. As a result, yields are beginning to fall. According to BNP Paribas Real Estate, prime regional office yields have dropped to 5.75 per cent from 6.75 per cent at the start of this year. “At the start of the year we forecast investment starting to flow into the regions and that is now happening,” said John Slade, BNP Paribas Real Estate chief executive. “We have seen a real move out into the regions, not just by UK money but also overseas investment. Two years ago you couldn’t even find a buyer for some regional offices. The market picked up last year and now yields are falling and are under pressure to fall further.” Darren Yates, partner at Knight Frank, the estate agency, agrees “locations outside central London are now on the radar of international investors”. He cites Manchester and Leeds as being particularly well-placed “due to their very diverse commercial base”. By contrast, Liverpool and Sheffield are seeing less demand, he says, noting that the economies of these two cities are more reliant on a public sector that is facing spending cuts. “We will see yield compression in the next six to 12 months, and the prospect of rental growth in the medium term, perhaps as early as next year,” Mr Yates says. Perhaps most crucially for future prospects, supply remains subdued, with little new space under construction other than in parts of southeast England, which is strongly influenced by the London market. Figures from IPD, the property value benchmarking group, show that the likes of Cambridge, Guildford and Brighton are doing particularly well – partly thanks to their proximity to the capital. Just six speculative office developments are planned for completion in the next two years, according to Knight Frank, all of which are in Manchester, Glasgow or Bristol. The developments will deliver less than 1m square feet of space between them. Manchester is the only regional city to have more than 200,000 sq ft of new space under construction. Rising demand in recent months has eroded an overhang of supply left empty since the start of the financial downturn. So much so that Mr McStay is now forecasting a supply crunch within two years. “In most places there has been no new development at all since 2007. Most cities now have less than 500,000 square feet remaining. That is a problem – you just need one or two big occupiers to come along and that takes up all the available space.” Developers have started to respond. Mr McStay cites schemes in Bristol and Glasgow as the first new supply of the most prized and sought-after “Grade A” space in six years. But the time lag between starting a new development and tenants moving in means that more needs to be done. “Construction takes a minimum of two years, and it can take three to four years depending on . . . planning permission,” he says. There are also still reason for investors to be cautious. While high-quality property is in demand, most regional cities still have some unwanted poorer-quality stock that is unpopular with both occupiers and investors. Birmingham has perhaps the greatest oversupply of office space, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle, the property group. Its vacancy rate of about 16 per cent is the highest of the UK’s major regional cities, with 3m sq ft remaining empty. “There is a lot of second-hand stock that is almost obsolete,” says Mr McStay. This situation could be eased in the coming months by forthcoming changes to planning laws, which would permit empty office buildings to be converted into housing. Some experts predict that this could help to erode the remaining volumes of secondary- and tertiary-quality stock sitting empty in many English cities. Continue reading
