2020 was all set to be a whopping year of sport. The Olympics, Paralympics and Euro 2020 have all been postponed until next summer, Wimbledon was cancelled, whilst the launch of The Hundred, cricket's new tournament, was another showpiece event to fall victim to Coronavirus. The cancellation of these events was a major blow for the BBC given they have the live television rights for them all, a setback that has also caused havoc with their planning for their Sports Personality of the Year programme which airs next Sunday evening. Given the lack of footage available for them to use, apparently the BBC did consider not holding the awards ceremony for the first time since 1954. However, the show goes on. In addition to handing out the usual awards for sports stars and teams, with the achievements of Tyson Fury, Lewis Hamilton, Stuart Broad, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Marcus Rashford, Holly Doyle, Jordan Henderson and his Liverpool team all expected to be recognised, the BBC will also be paying tribute to the sporting endeavours of ‘ordinary people’ during what has been an extraordinary year. While the incredible fundraising efforts of Sir Captain Tom Moore is bound to be a focus, the programme will feature on other stories of physical achievement and sacrifice during the lockdowns, such as people running marathons in extraordinary places or completing remarkable endurance challenges. Picking a winner from all these feels like an impossible task, but hopefully the efforts this week of Leeds Rhinos’ Director of Rugby, Kevin Sinfield, who ran seven marathons in seven days (each in under 3 hours 50 minutes) for his ex-teammate Rob Burrow and the Motor Neurone Disease Association, will get the recognition it merits.

Tick tock, tick tock. There are now only eighteen days left for the Chartered Surveying community to ensure they have logged their completed CPD for the year with the RICS. Although The Weekly is, of course, completely up-to-date (and has exceeded the annual requirements multiple times over), we found ourselves attending three webinars and being the lucky recipient of multiple interesting research publications this week. Topics ranged from ‘Social Housing as an Investment Opportunity’, ‘Premium Global Office Rents’, through to ‘COVID and Brexit: The Impacts on International Capital for UK Property’. The week ended with CBRE’s Monthly Index Results Call which provided a review of the key trends and performance of the UK commercial investment market. On the positive side, CBRE reported that there has been greater activity recorded since September, despite the movement restrictions over the past month or so. UK funds have been more active, whilst overseas investors remain busy on both the buy and sell side, with increased demand being seen from European funds. Industrial yields remain strong across the board, with yields for prime Greater London estates now standing at 3.65%! That is not a typo by the way. Capital values were unchanged at 0.0% across all UK Commercial property in November 2020. Less positively, the retail and leisure sectors continue to receive more bad news with company failures, restructurings and CVAs. Prime high street retail yields now stand at 6.50%, 125 basis points softer than this time last year. Yields are now weakening for secondary office stock too. At the All Property level, over the year to date, capital growth has been -7.90%, rental growth -2.50% and total returns -3.00%. A summary? Good riddance to 2020 and bring on 2021!

At a time when life feels like it’s at a standstill, Netflix is arguably one of the few joys we have left. With so much of 2020 having been spent in lockdown, many of us will have spent far more time than usual scrolling through, looking for things to watch. The Weekly’s most recent foray was The Queen’s Gambit and would highly recommend it. If you don’t trust our judgment, the fact that the series has featured in the top ten programme rankings in ninety-two countries should hopefully be enough for you to give it a go! The series is based on a 1983 novel of the same name. It follows a young orphan who develops an astonishing talent for the game of chess as she rises the ranks in the male-dominated world of competitive chess to pursue her dream of becoming a grandmaster. Aside from offering seven hours of gripping entertainment, the show has also resulted in a huge uptick in people playing the sport and buying sets. In fact, the world appears to have gone bonkers for pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens and kings and the battle of brains played over sixty-four little squares. Sales of sets and accessories have shot up by over 200%. Millions of new fans have flocked online looking for matches, lessons and puzzles. Since March, chess.com has added 12.2 million new members, including 3.2 million since the Queen’s Gambit debut in late October. While lockdown life and a TV series have clearly helped to increase interest levels, time will only tell whether the current chess boom will be just another passing fancy as with the knitting and banana bread eras seen earlier on this year!