LONDON-Retail investor Hammerson has made a late bid to enter the out-of-town retail market with a Pounds 192 million ($300 million) offer for Grantchester. The company's management has already offered Pounds 167 million ($262 million) to take the company private.

LONDON-The Corporation of London will continue to encourage high-rise development despite criticisms in this week's report from the parliamentary Sub-Committee on Urban Affairs.

LONDON-A Lehman Bros-backed consortium has unveiled plans for a Pounds 100 million ($157 million) retail scheme in Newport, South Wales. The existing Kingsway shopping centre will be upgraded and doubled in size to 450,000 sf.

LONDON-ProLogis Developments has sold a 49,300-sf office building on its 300-acre ProLogis Park scheme in Coventry, Warwickshire, to clients of Henderson Global Investors for Pounds 8.82 million ($13.7 million)

LONDON-The Ministry of Defence has sold a 126-acre development site beside the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link in Ashford, Kent, to Westbury and Wimpey Homes. Ashford is one of four areas in south-east England earmarked by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for a massive surge in housing development.

LONDON-UK property yields are continuing to fall as investors seek a safe home for their money while the stock market turbulence continues. The CB Hillier Parker All Property Average Yield has fallen for the third consecutive quarter to stand at 7.2%.

LONDON-Akeler, the international office and business park developer which was bought last month by Lend lease Global Properties, has completed the sale of the latest phase of its at Quinta da Fonte development in Lisbon, Portugal for €42.25 million ($41 million) to German asset manager MEAG.

LONDON-Take-up in the depressed Thames Valley office market to the west of London has slumped by 50% in a year with just 1.2 million absorbed during the first half of 2002, one of the lowest levels ever seen in one of the UK's key office markets.