Driving Change in UK Housing: Innovations, Investments, and Government Commitments

This bulletin provides an overview of recent developments in the UK property market, including investment trends and new initiatives. It discusses government schemes to improve home energy efficiency, such as Retrofit Nation which offers fully funded upgrades. Major investors like Aviva and MMG remain bullish on the rental sector despite regulatory concerns. The Labour Party aims to address the housing shortage by developing brownfield sites, releasing greenbelt land, and establishing new towns. They also plan initiatives in the private rental sector like abolishing no-fault evictions. Demand for London homes from wealthy Thai investors surged 20% in H1 2023 due to the strong pound and attractive rental yields. Innovative scanning vehicles are mapping UK buildings to assess energy efficiency and retrofit potential at scale. This comprehensive data aims to help design large retrofit projects to improve housing stock.

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The prophecy bulletin

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by London property the home of super pride.

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retrofit the nation is an initiative that aims to help Brits make homes more energy efficient. It is a government funded program to those that qualify for funding to alter their homes. It is claimed that homeowners renters and landlords can cut energy use and bills. The program offers customized improvements for each home's needs. The Eco for scheme is a scheme that energy companies must fund energy efficient measures and eligible homes. Those who currently qualify are low income households, benefit recipients and people with long term health issues. The grant value can cover the full cost of home improvements. With rising living costs in the UK, reducing energy bills is essential. retrofit the nation's supports government schemes to make homes more energy efficient by offering fully funded upgrades. These upgrades save money and make homes more comfortable and valuable. The Eco for scheme targets homes needing improvement, especially low income families and benefit recipients with grants that can cover the entire cost making upgrades accessible for those who qualify to apply fill out a simple form with Retrofit donation. This leads to a property survey to determine the best energy efficient improvements for your home. The process is user friendly, ensuring tailored solutions for each household. Taking advantage of these schemes can cut energy costs and may help the environment. leading firms like Aviva legal in general and MMG are significantly increasing their investments in the UK rental housing market. Despite concerns about potential new regulations from the Labour government, these companies see strong long term returns due to high housing demand. institutional investment in UK rental housing is still relatively small, comprising only 2% of the market compared to over 35% in Germany in the US. According to savills, however, the rental sector including student housing and retirement homes is outperforming the broader commercial property market, which is struggling with high borrowing costs and shifting work patterns. Investors are very keen on these living sectors. It's like a battle of the beds, said Rebecca Shafran from BNP Paribas. Aviva has invested 750 million pounds in the last 18 months and plans to triple that within three to four years. Its latest project is a partnership with Barrett to build 101 rental homes in Cambridge, legal in general the securing funds from its insurance business and external investors to boost investment starting in 2025. Legal and genitals Dan Betterton emphasizes the need for well designed rent controls to avoid deterring investors MMG and Royal London asset management are also committing hundreds of millions of pounds to the sector. US fungi NS PGIM and Blackstone have recently made significant investments in the UK PGIM notes challenges such as comparatively low returns and high construction costs. The Labour government aims to get Britain building again with finance minister Rachel Reeves pledging to overhaul planning rules and deliver 1.5 million homes in five years. However, investors are cautious about forthcoming legislation to protect renters, which could include rent controls. We still face the threat of more regulation like rent controls which could stifle investment Cedric to baby CEO of build to rent developer get living. residential development is the top choice for European real estate funds in 2024. With homes making up 23% of their portfolios up from 7% A decade ago, investment in the UK is build to rent sector which 2.6 billion pounds in the first half of 2024, the highest since 2016. According to Knight Frank, the biggest fear among investors is rent caps sedang rescreen from BNP Paribas to reduce rents we need to increase supply added. Campaigners like generation rents Connor O'Shea, who tried to ignore the realities of supply and demand argue for rent controls due to rising inflation and stagnant wage growth, saying the market is spiraling out of control and people are suffering. Despite regulatory concerns, major investors remain bullish on the UK rental market, driven by strong demand and the promise of long term returns. The Labour Party has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament. To achieve this they plan to focus on developing previously used land known as brownfield sites. They also claim they will adopt a strategic approach to designating and releasing Greenbelt land for new developments. Additionally, Labour aims to reform compulsory purchase rules to speed up site delivery ensuring public benefits in housing, infrastructure and amenities. In May 2024, Angela Reyna announced Labour's commitment to creating new towns as part of their housing strategy. Labour plans to establish a new towns commission within six months of taking office, with the goal of identifying potential sites for new towns within a year. In a move they claim will support first time buyers labour proposes a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme. This they say will lower mortgage costs and make homeownership more affordable. Planning is another crucial area where labour aims to make significant changes. They themselves plan to introduce another plan to update the national planning policy framework to better meet current planning needs and reintroduce mandatory planned housing targets to ensure system development, a new task force will be created with the aim of accelerating the development of delayed housing projects in England, and labor plans to hire 300 More Planning Officers to help local authorities manage and expedite housing projects. Whether any of this additional central planning, control and massive expense will have any effect remains to be seen. For the private rented sector, Labour has devised several initiatives to interfere. They plan to abolish section 21 at no fault evictions to protect renters and allow them to challenge unreasonable rent increases. Additionally, Labour will extend our wives law to private rentals to improve living conditions and prevent tragedies like the death of our BISAC which was claimed to be due to poor housing conditions. Finally, Labour's manifesto includes additional commitments with the stated aim of improving housing and community well being, they will introduce even more regulations, which they claim will enhance building safety. They also make the very bold claim that they will collaborate with mayors and councils to address and ultimately end homelessness. In summary, the Labour Party's commitments to Housing Communities and Local Government reflect a pretty typical central planners view on attempting to control a complex market. These plans promised to create a fairer, more sustainable future for all. Demand for London residential properties among wealthy ties searched by 20% in the first half of this year, driven primarily by investment buyers, preferably a few in Cancun, head of residential sales of property consultants CBRE Thailand, noted that this investment trend started in 2022, reaching its peak last year. This surge was influenced by a 1.6% drop in house prices across the UK during 2022 to 23 due to weak local demand. The pumped about exchange rate which was 40 to 41, bought early last year, has since climbed to 46 but and is still rising. This shift has spurred increased interest in London property investment among ties, perfectly explained last year saw a record high of 60 UK property sold to Thai buyers through various property consultants, compared to the usual average of 10 to 20 units annually. A significant factor behind this increase was parents purchasing properties for their children's studying in the UK. Interestingly, the proportion of purchases for educational purposes decreased from the usual 90% to 80% last year, while investment purchases grew from 10% to 20%. This is a notable rise from the pre pandemic investment rate of two to 3%. Several key factors have driven this trend, the escalating exchange rate with some buyers expecting it to reach 50 bar from the current 41 to 43 bar has been a significant motivator. Additionally, there has been a shift from investing in Bangkok properties, with some Thai buyers diversifying their portfolios to include London properties. Many Thai buyers started investing in London properties after initially purchasing them for their children's accommodation preferably a said some even used a portion of the rent from their central London apartments to cover the rental costs of apartments in outer London for their children. When comparing property investment in Greater London with Thailand, paraphernalia highlighted that residential property investment in Bangkok Central Business District has become less attractive. Prices in Bangkok have soared nearly 800 to 900,000 baht per square meter, which is comparable to some areas of London. For example, a budget of 25 million baht for a condo unit in Bangkok prime locations can also buy a unit in outer London, where the rental market is more attractive. Since the UK reopened in 2021. Post lockdown rental rates for apartments in central London have risen significantly, with an 8.5% increase last year compared to 2022. Last year. CBRE sold 15 London apartment units worth a total of 600 million but tie buyers up from 10 units worth 400 to 500 million Barton 2022. Investment purchases have consistently accounted for 10% of these transactions each year. In various UK cities like London, Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds, strange looking cars have been spotted cruising the streets hunting for leaky buildings. These are not ordinary vehicles but the built environment scanning system the ESS modified test is equipped with advanced scanners, cameras and robotics. These modifications enable them to collect detailed data on the dimensions heat loss materials age and state of dilapidation of every building they pass. UK nonprofit Sri with funding from Innovate UK, the Welsh Government and the UK space agency has developed two of these BSS cars in a three month period and 2024 of these vehicles have scanned over 1.5 million homes. The goal is to combine the data gathered by the BSS cars with additional information, including drone and satellite imagery to create a comprehensive database on the state of the UK as buildings. The team hopes that this AI powered database will help councils housing associations, and other property owners to quickly design and finance large scale

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retrofit projects.

Speaker 2  9:43  
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