old tax rule, which permitted people living in the UK (but who are domiciled elsewhere) to avoid paying tax on income and capital gains earned overseas for up to 15 years. As of 2023, an estimated 74,000 people enjoyed the status. Labour Government plans to abolish the status as of April 2025 pose a risk of the UK losing £8.4 billion of non-dom contributions and £150 million in fees. In addition, the UK’s capital gains tax and estate duty rates are among the highest in the world. Thus, we see that UK nationals are also making plans to settle in more attractive jurisdictions. Your clients respect your depth of experience in investment and joint ventures. Can you share some key factors that contribute to successful partnerships in real estate transactions? Joint ventures succeed when there is a balanced pool of competencies and mutual trust. Aligning interests, capabilities, and having robust contacts is as important as knowing who you are dealing with. It is critical to conduct due diligence on your potential JV partners, particularly if your “would-be partners” have prior friendly relationships and unequal resources (the latter is usually the key motivation for forming JVs). If one of your counterparts has a prior poor reputation, extra care needs to be taken. Unfortunately, many joint ventures end up in litigation. We are currently in the middle of a high-profile litigation where a billionaire JV partner breached its obligations in a real estate development project. The billionaire has a history of “bad behaviour” in business dealings and a hunger for litigation. Thus, extra caution would have been prudent in considering whether to transact in the first place. As Warren Buffett famously said, “You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.” If someone can out-resource you in a dispute, you’d be well advised to think twice and consider the worst-case scenario before signing on the dotted line. However, the UK courts are still the best available forum in JV disputes to sort out any irregularities (albeit at great expense). How do you approach deal-making, and what strategies do you employ to create opportunities for your clients? Over the last 20 years, I have connected people, and, as in any deal-making, knowing your clients well and taking the time to speak to them in a nontransactional setting is key. Human relationships make the deals happen. In your experience, what trends are currently shaping the residential and commercial real estate markets in London? Over the last two decades, house prices have soared considerably in the UK, increasing by 44% nationally and by 74% in London since 2007. However, mortgage rates are rising, and this is putting downward pressure on house prices. We see that the market is currently saturated with property, so the pricing is slowly correcting, which is a natural cycle. We see that younger generations choose renting over owning—even when they can afford to buy. What role do you believe technology is playing in the evolution of real estate law, and how are you adapting to these changes in your practice? We have seen extremely efficient technological processes that have unburdened legal practice. For example, the automation of land registration and stamp duty land tax is wonderful; most 58 LAWYER MONTHLY NOVEMBER 2024 You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.
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