this is bbc news. the headlines — more than 28,000 people are now known to have died after monday's earthquakes in turkey and syria, with the death toll likely to more than double, says the un. visiting the region, the un's aid chief has described the massive earthquakes as the worst natural disaster to hit the middle east in a century. the canadian prime ministerjustin trudeau has confirmed that a us fighterjet, acting on his orders, hasjust shot down a new high—altitude object which was flying over northern canada. and at the brit awards in london —

as predicted, harry styles is one of the night's big winners. you are watching bbc news. now it's time for talking business. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to talking business weekly with me, aaron heslehurst. let's go take a look at what's on the show. the cities that went to sleep for the pandemic are waking up, but how much are the world's great metropolises bouncing back and can they ever get back to where they were? with hybrid and remote working still in place in much of the world, what is the impact on our great cities, their restaurants, economies and property prices? i'm going to be discussing all of that with these two. there they are. dr megan walters, global head of research at allianz real estate, and julian metcalfe, the big boss of the asian food chain itsu. plus, i sit down with yuriko koike, the governor of tokyo to get her view on how one of the world's great capitals is faring after

the olympics and the pandemic. and if that wasn't enough, we've got the global boss of christies who talks dealing with antiques, technology and real people in real auctions now the art world is back. wherever you'rejoining me from around the world, once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the show. you know, for well over 100 years the move of people from the countryside to the city has been unstoppable. lured byjobs, money and opportunity, global megacities with millions of people have sprung to life. but in march 2020 that came to a grinding halt in almost

every city on the planet. as the covid pandemic crossed borders, those who lived in tightly packed densities were at the greatest risk of catching and passing on the virus. every major metropolis had some kind of lockdown. busy streets, shops, offices, restaurants and theatres were shuttered as people stayed indoors, turning to online and remote working. others, like medical and other essential staff still went to work. but the closing of office space hit home notjust those working in them but also the people who made their lunches, brewed their coffees and poured their after—work drinks. while debates about restrictions on liberty raged among politicians, perhaps it was the governor of new york who put the reasons for the lockdowns most blatantly to his city. my mother is not expendable. and your mother is not expendable. and our brothers and sisters are not expendable. and we are not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable.

and many people didn't just work from home, they left the city they lived in, often to go somewhere a bit cheaper and with more space. so how are our cities coming back? here in london, office occupancy is roughly where it was before the pandemic, but only on certain days of the week. in december, numbers showed that around half of office spaces was occupied on a thursday, a little less than the pre—pandemic average of 60%. but that fell sharply on a friday to just 15%, reflecting that many office workers now come in from tuesday to thursday. in new york, the number of people riding the subway is averaging around 60% of the pre—pandemic level. and injapan, sales for department stores, they are recovering but they are still around 11% lower than their pre—pandemic level. so, what has all of that been doing to property prices in the centres of our big cities, and what can it tell us about how our cities are changing? allianz real estate manages

office spaces in 47 cities across north america, europe, shanghai and singapore. so, i caught up with its head of global research. dr megan walters, a real pleasure having you with us. let's start with this quite simply put, how are cities bouncing back? thanks, aaron. look, the pandemic changed how we work, how we live and how we shop, so let's just start with shopping. e—commerce was a huge lifeline for many of us during the pandemic but increasingly, people want to go back to shops, so a recent survey of 20,000 global consumers showed seven out of ten want to view product in shops. a bit more in the us, a bit less in asia pacific where they are willing to shop online. in terms of living, one of the biggest changes we saw that we could observe was actually in the us. between march 2020 and february 2021 during the pandemic, we saw close to 3 million people leave some of the higher density cities and actually move to what we call the sunbelt cities, places like austin, dallas, miami and phoenix, in search of a lower cost of living

and better weather. what is really interesting is since then, two things, first of all, people have stayed in those sunbelt cities. you can see things like high—frequency data such as restaurant bookings remain above pre—pandemic in those lovely cities. but also, interestingly, people are returning to high—density cities. being backfilled by other places. so for example, residential rents in new york are back above pre—pandemic levels and we've got residential rents rising in other global cities, london, singapore, berlin, sydney and milan. so, this is very much showing that people are staying in cities. that brings us to how we work which is probably the biggest single change out of the pandemic. hybrid working, probably here to stay and what it means for cities in an era of hybrid working is the footprint of cities actually gets bigger. if you only have to go to the office one, two, three days a week,

you might choose to live much further out and then commute in. so, in an era of hybrid working, the footprint for these big cities gets even bigger and even more important. so, we've mentioned hybrid working and how that is impacting companies but it's a tricky one, because at the end of the day, companies still need the office, even if it's just for part of the week. that's exactly right. about 70% of employers say the office is absolutely central to their ecosystem, for socialisation, for gathering employees together. so, although people might be in the office slightly less frequently, it's surprisingly difficult for corporations to give back space. what we think will happen in terms of hybrid working is a change of what happens inside the offices. so historically, individual desks probably made up 60% of floor areas inside offices and meeting rooms more like a0%. moving forward, what is much more

likely to happen is that individual workspaces will fall right back to maybe 30% and the space for collaboration and meetings will increase to more like 50%. megan, let me end on this, what has all of this meant for property valuations? well, let's take an example of somewhere like london, which is an interesting city because we've got three office markets, broadly. we've got the west end office market, so that's the area around mayfair, oxford street, bond street. we've got the city of london around the bank of england then we got canary wharf out on the east side. if you look at the vacancy rates in those different office areas, so in the west end, where there are bars and shops and theatres, you have the lowest vacancy rates, just 4—6%. in the city of london which is more traditional, 8—10% vacancy, and in the very office heavy end at canary wharf, sort of 15 — i7% vacancy. what it is showing is we have demand for offices in some of the areas

where people want to go. what holds up property valuations is the rents that people want to pay, so super prime, premium rents are holding up, people very much want those sorts of offices and so that is supporting those sorts of capital values. so, we see that super premium offices probably have a 20% premium over more traditional standard offices. during the pandemic, rents actually held up surprisingly well, people continue to pay their rent. the other component for property values is interest rates. recently we have seen a spike in interest rates. what that does is it tends to depress the value of real estate, so rent divided by your cap rate or your interest rate gives you your capital value, so it's interest rates rises that does tend to depress the value of offices. but it's a really mixed picture. as i say, super prime offices in the hearts of cities, values are holding up extremely well.

it's the secondary grade offices, perhaps with worse energy ratings, that we see will probably suffer the most. megan, let me end on this, a prediction. five years�* time are we in our city centres more or less? i think we're in our city centres more. i think people want to come together to socialise. the draw of cities actually gets bigger in the era of hybrid working. if people don't have to go to the city centre so much for work, they are more likely to come into socialise. i think the great goal for cities, instead of having a central business districts, we need central socialisation districts. mixed use developments that everyone can enjoy. on that note, dr megan walters, a real pleasure having you with us. thank you for your time. i'll talk to you soon. thank you. just before the pandemic locked the world's cities down, my next guest was talking about opening 100 new restaurants around the world and he knows how to do it as well. his first chain of restaurants, pret a manger, redefined lunch for office workers in mega cities across the planet. his next venture, the asian

inspired restaurant itsu, it's opened across the uk, it has a small footprint in europe. its new york restaurant closed during covid. so, how has the current state of the world's cities impacted on his plans for global expansion? julian metcalfe, it's great to have you on the show. let's start with this, simply put, how did covid and the closing of offices hit your business? it hit itsu much the same way it hit a great many businesses, particularly hospitality. well, infact, everybody. it's like other hospitality businesses in the sense that as the cities slowly fill up, itsu is thriving. we were lucky that a great many itsus were feeding people outside the great cities and in many of the big towns, and they remained very busy as they opened up. it almost seems like a decade ago, 2020, february, doesn't it? we've moved on.

and for many people, operating their business lives differently but the cities are definitely filling up. julian, before covid you had big global expansion plans. how did you have to change those? well, covid put a stop on everything for a great many of us, but now we are opening a second and third itsu in paris, france. we're opening, hopefully about to start building in brussels, belgium, a second itsu. and we are talking of planning to open in germany and other countries in europe, so we are still going well. we are very fortunate. what about north america? north america was a classic... situation in the sense we had a landlord there who would not let north america was a classic... situation in the sense we had a landlord there who would not let us off any rent for two years. new york landlords are

famously very demanding, so after two years of paying full rent, we gave up the keys tragically, sadly but we will go back into north america when the time is right. but no, covid destroyed that. just briefly, when will that time be right, do you think? i think next — probably at the end of next year. once we have a break from opening in other european countries, we will go back into america. america, the whole of america is in dire need of nutritious, affordable food at the right price. as we all know, anybody who has travelled in america knows it is very much reliant on fried, fast food and that on that point, julian metcalfe, a real pleasure having you on the show. good luck with everything and i will

check in with you soon. 0ne city that has seen people returning to its pre—covid levels is tokyo. i sat down with the city's governorjust to find out how one of the world's greatest city is bouncing back. a real pleasure you are now open agian for tourists which is wonderful news. are you concerned about those tourists bringing back covid with them? the situation in tokyo is fine and secured. our situation, - medical situation is stable. we would like to have more inbound tourists to enjoy tokyo. tokyo, everybody thinks of tokyo as one of the greatest cities on the planet. it has a long and storied history but surely the pandemic would have been one

of the big tough points if you will in its history. i am just wondering, as governor, what were | some of the toughest challenges you had to make? big population with 14 million, and the pandemic attacked. we suffered quite a lot, because we had to prepare for the 2020 olympic and paralympic games and with the covid—i9. but we could do it thanks to your cooperation and the athletes and so many people involved, they committed nicely and we could do that. i think the games offered such a positive manner and to change the way of thinking. the games certainly did that. how close is tokyo now to how it was before the pandemic?— active, as before.

we are asking people to enjoy sustainable recovery rather than ordinary recovery. because during three years' time under the pandemic, we have learned about teleworking, digital working, remote working, so people's way of thinking and also the lifestyle has been changed in three years. you once did thisjob, myjob. you were one of the financial news presenters injapan, but when you were doing that, tokyo didn't have as much competition in terms of other city centres being a big financial hubs. what are you doing

to get tokyo back onto the stage as the financial hub in your region? thid is why i am here in london and promoting tokyo as an initiative, as an international hub in asia, in order to revitalise the market in tokyo. when i was a news presenter, financial news, actually the japanese economy was enjoying a but i thinkjapan and tokyo can resume its power... as a financial centre? as a financial centre and by digitalisation and inviting more - youngsters from abroad with talent, and also think tanks are really invited to tokyo. governor, a real pleasure having you on the show. thank you so much for your time.

good luck with everything. today we have been looking at how the world's biggest cities are coming back after christie �*s london,the largest auction house in the world. it is active in 46 countries with showrooms in ten and the pandemic was one of the company �*s toughest challenges. i popped into its london headquarters to catch up with its big boss. a real pleasure having you on my show. thank you for your time. we have been looking at the impact, the pandemic has had on the big cities around the world. you have offices in some of the larger cities on the planet. i'm wondering, how i did you pivot christie 's during what was a horrible time? great question and thank you for having me today. 2020 was a tough and we closed our offices. we need a few months to pivot to online

auctions and the rebound was really impressive at the end of 2020 and at the end of 2021. it took us a few months to change and modernise our 2021 was a record year. 2022 was an even better year. the bounceback has | been rather phenomenal. absolutely. j because of this move towards online sales and also because it is a period of time when we have seen an influx of new clients. developing our online sales has helped enormously to engage with a new audience, millennials, at christie's in 2021 and 2022, more than 30% of new clients were millennials. which of your global offices has change the most? i'm wondering where you are seeing people returning and the flip side where people are

staying away? we have four major | auction sites, london, new york, | paris and hong kong. all of these auction rooms i've seen the same phenomenon, moving towards more online sales but still live auctions especially for higher value lots,because people want to see the works in the flesh. but in every auction room we have seen a move towards more online sales. the most impressive probably is in asia. why? because the effects of covid were longer, for instance in shanghai we have discontinued our probably in asia people pivoting towards online has been stronger. people are returning to | cities, so what are you doing to | take advantage of that, to embrace the return?— galleries before auctions. we have a

few days where we are open free of we are trying to engage also with new generations of collectors and people. in london and new york we have christie's late. once a month we are opening until late in the evening and we develop their exhibitions, shows, talks with our specialists or with guests. it's a lively place. i love to mention this example last year we sold this incredible collection from paul allen, one of the co—founders of microsoft. we sold his wonderful collection in ny last year for more than $1.6 billion. it was a record—breaking sale. before the sale we welcomed at christie's more than 35,000 people around the world, seeing highlights from this collection. in london, in paris, in asia, in new york, 35,000 people came to see these artworks,

this wonderful collection free. have you | seen a change in the taste of what| people are buying and selling because of the pandemic? during the pandemic, during the most difficult moments we have seen quite successful sales of design. people at home were buying pieces of furniture or pieces of design probably because they were at home and they were buying for their home. they had more time to think about that was something that happened in 2022. since then... and people had more money too. probably more money to spend. that said, for the last ten years, there is a tendency to want more and more contemporary and luxury goods. luxury means jewels, watches, handbags, wine, contemporary art — is contemporary art but in different

photos, for intstance, design, paintings, sculpture, so that is where the new collectors are primarily buying. with all these online sales, i'm curious, i am looking over your shoulder, there is a painting that is priced at 3.5 million to £5 million. if that went for £5 million, which is nearly 6 million dollars and i'd buy that and i am in sydney, australia, how do you get that to me? i am thinking the security around transportation must be henomenal. ~ , ., , ., we have shippers we work with, we have insurers and we will ship it with security? of course. in secure cargoes. we are working

with network of companies that ship artworks around the world. that is what we do. you mentioned china and we know christie's is the only international auction house authorised to sell on the mainland. now we know china is pretty much opening up but during all of those lockdowns, when it had that zero covid mentality policy, that must have been a big impact on your business. , ,, ., ., ., instance, very important in terms of image and for recruiting new clients in mainland china. we had to discontinue the sales but the online sales and our ability to sell from hong kong as well, that has helped us to overcome the situation. the |chinese back buying? yes. i was| there in november. it is possible

now to travel more usually in asia, especially hong kong, the main hub for auctions and the art world in we are hoping that this spring we will see an even bigger opening of the region and yes, we are counting on a rebound in may when we have our i main sales in hong kong. before i. shake your hand, you have put these items in here for this interview. which one are you going to give me? this one. look at the power of this, cecily brown. it is expressionist, it is colourful, the power of this painting on the wall is amazing. you cannot choose between all of these paintings, but this one is really the one i would pick up. that is again 3.5 million to £5 million. all i - need now is a wall big enough to put it on! thank you so much for your time.

that is it for this week. you can keep up with the latest on the bbc website or on the app and you can follow me on twitter. thank you for watching, i will see you soon, goodbye. hello there. much of the country was cloudy on saturday — rather a grey, dismal day. however, the sunshine did break through across northeast scotland and northeast england. we saw temperatures in the low teens. part two of the weekend, i think we should see more sunshine around across northern and western areas, could have more of a breeze to break up the cloud. but earlier, sunday will be rather

grey, and with this blanket of cloud, and by around dawn, for most of us, temperatures shouldn't be any lower than 3—6 celsius, but where we have the odd cloud break, there could be a few frost pockets here and there. so, for sunday, we've got high pressure still dominating the weather scene, keeping all weather fronts at bay, so it's staying largely dry, and we're in this mild air mass — ourairsource coming in from the south. so, we start off rather grey for this morning, but as we move through the morning, more of a breeze across the north and west. that'll help break up the cloud, so we should see more sunshine — scotland, northern ireland, northwest england, wales and southwest england. light winds further east mean we'll hold on to the cloud, so i think rather grey for the eastern half of england, but it will be breezy in the northwest of scotland, where we could see some of the best of the sunshine. and a mild day to come as well — temperatures io—ii, maybe 12—13 degrees in the sunniest spots. through sunday night, we'll hold onto the cloud across more eastern areas, but with more cloud breaks further north and west, this is going to be a recipe for a slightly colder night, i think.

where we have those clear skies, we're likely to see some frost, maybe a little bit of mist and fog, too. so, as we head into the start of the new week, from monday, we've still got our area of high pressure with us, but weather fronts will be slowly pushing in from the west. they won't really arrive until late on tuesday into wednesday to bring a change to our weather. monday, anotherfine and largely dry day, a lot of cloud towards the east of england and elsewhere. we should see holes breaking that cloud to allow for some sunny spells. and again, another mild day to come — temperatures in double figures for most — i2—i3, warmest spots in the sun across the south. then, into tuesday and beyond, we start to see weather fronts making inroads. i think from wednesday onwards, this is where we'll start to see the weather turning a bit more unsettled, low pressure bringing slightly stronger winds and outbreaks of rain at times. so, tuesday, anotherfine, dry, sunny day, very mild once again. and then, from wednesday onwards, we'll start to see things turning a bit more unsettled with rain at times, but even then, it's still going to stay mild.

this is bbc news. i'm mark lobel. our top stories... more than 28,000 people are now known to have died after monday's earthquakes in turkey and syria. the un says the death toll is likely to "more than double". visiting the region, the un's aid chief described the massive earthquakes as the worst natural disaster to hit the middle east in a century. the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau, has confirmed that a us fighterjet — acting on his orders — has shot down a new high—altitude object which was flying over northern canada. 15 people have been arrested following clashes with police, outside a hotel providing refuge for asylum seekers on merseyside in northwest england.