Real Estate Bulletin – May 2026

Data Centres - opportunities, challenges and market trends

Join us at 9am on 30 June 2026 as Simmons & Simmons partners Kirsty Barnes and Barry Gross:

• unpack some of the key considerations for those looking to enter the data centre sector in the UK and beyond.
• host an expert panel discussion exploring current market trends, and the particular challenges and opportunities impacting the sector.

You can find out more and register for the event here.

When Colin the Caterpillar met the 1954 Act…

We look at the recent decision of Caterpillar Property Ltd and another v Park Cakes Ltd [2026] EWCA Civ 575, where the Court of Appeal confirmed the County Court’s decision that a lease with an unexercised option to renew also benefitted from the security of tenure provisions in Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

You can read more about this decision here.

Build to Rent Alliance launches new code of practice for England and Wales

The Build to Rent Alliance, which was formed last year between the Association for Rental Living (ARL) and Real Estate:UK (RE:UK), has launched a new Code of Practice for the sector.

We take a look at this in more detail here.

Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has been undertaking pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill. On 27 May 2026 it published its report on the draft Bill.

The report notes that the ‘draft bill would make a significant step towards giving leasehold homeowners greater control of their buildings, but that the final bill requires several changes and additions to meet leaseholders’ expectations and previous government pledges’.

The government now has two months to respond to the report.

The report notes that as part of its response the government ‘must publish further evidence to justify why it has proposed a 40-year transitional period before a change to peppercorn ground rent, instead of a 20-year transition’. With the committee noting that it is ‘not clear to us why a shorter transitional period of 20 years would not also represent a fair balance between the parties’. The committee also believes the ‘ground rent cap could come into force in late 2027’. It also recommends that the final Bill includes ‘a commencement clause for the £250 cap on ground rents to come into force two months after the Act is given Royal Assent—not at a time to be decided by ministers, as is currently the case in the draft bill’.

Other recommendations for the final Bill include:

• A recommendation that the final Bill must include provisions to establish a new, independent public body as the Regulator for property managing agents, with enforcement powers.
• Including provisions ‘to fix the flaws’ which the government has identified in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
• A recommendation that the new requirement to hold a reserve fund applies to new and existing leaseholders, as well as commonhold blocks, to ensure parity between the duties placed on blocks of different tenures.
• Several recommendations in relation to the implementation of Commonhold and the banning of new leasehold flats, including a recommendation that the draft bill should establish conversion to commonhold as the default outcome of a collective enfranchisement.

The Bill was included in the King’s Speech 2026, which sets out the proposed legislative programme for the next parliamentary session.