LONDON-Royal Berkshire & Battle Hospitals NHS Trust has appointed Atis Real Weatheralls to sell the 27-acre Battle Hospital site in Reading, Berkshire. The site already has outline planning permission for a mixed residential and retail development.

LONDON-Rental growth in the Scottish commercial property sector has tuned negative, according to the latest Insignia Richard Ellis Scottish Quarterly Index. But the office market north of the border is still outperforming the UK as a whole.

LONDON-LxB, the out-of-town retail investor set up by the former Grantchester management team and backed by Tom Hunter's West Coast Capital has paid pounds 45.6 million ($73.4 million) for a retail park in Telford, Shropshire.

LONDON-Countryside Properties and the English Cities Fund have been shortlisted for City Park Gate, the second phase of the gigantic Masshouse regeneration project in Birmingham city centre.

LONDON-Property Alliance Group has been chosen by Wyre Borough Council to develop a prominent 11-acre site on the promenade at Cleveleys, on the Fylde Peninsula in Lancashire.

LONDON-Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts has sold the Hotel Ritz in Madrid for Eur125 million ($140 million). This is the second major transaction in Spain this year, highlighting continued interest in European hotel investment.

LONDON-The Bristol Alliance--a consortium of land Securities; Hammerson; Henderson Global Investors and Morley Fund Management--has received planning permission for the Quakers Friars site, a key part of its Broadmead development in Bristol.

LONDON-The split between newcomers Neil List and Mike Backs and the existing board members at listed property consultancy Chesterton widened as the two prepared to approach shareholders directly to head off a bid from Mohammed Jafari-Fini.