Monthly Archives: November 2016

Commercial Property Investment – Panel Discussion at the Central London Property Meet

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Below is a brief synopsis of another interesting panel held at the Central London Property Meet, exploring the merits of commercial property investment. Left to right in the photo below,  Ranjan Bhattacharya (Property Investor), Barry Shaw (Commercial Property Lawyer) Am Kainth (Property Investor), Piragash Sivanesan (Director of Totum Finance) and Daryl Norkett (BDM for Shawbrook Bank) all contributed to the discussion. Fairly London-centric in terms of focus, it was observed that commercial property values have not seen the rapid appreciation relative to the residential sector in recent years – potentially presenting wider and more dynamic investment angles in a “post section 24” operational environment.  Some important cost savings include lower stamp duty liability and the potential for VAT to be excluded or recovered post-completion (depending on the circumstances of the transaction).  FRI (Full Repairing and Insuring) leases combined with recoverable... [Read More]

PropTech and BuildTech – Embracing the Future

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A recent RICS seminar entitled “AI in the Built Environment” raised a number of thought-provoking questions on technology´s future within the property development / investment industry.  Particularly amongst SMEs, the slower take-up across the residential supply-chain is often attributed to the untested and prohibitively expensive nature of many of the solutions fed into the marketplace.  Yet, in spite of the financial hurdles, more developers have begun to appreciate technologies that can genuinely streamline workflows and counterbalance the costly inefficiencies that often plague project timelines.  What follows is a broad outline some of the interesting concepts, tools and machinery slowly but surely filtering into the industry. Land Finding, Remediation and Speeding up the Planning Process Achieving a feasible, and ultimately profitable, development scheme relies on a myriad of factors relating to the choice, location and physical characteristics of a given site.  A... [Read More]

Property Crowdfunding Raises its Game

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Crowdfunding has arguably taken a while to grab property investors / developers attention in the same way that the overarching concept has achieved in other industries.  In recent years, however, its role as a viable source of finance for a variety of project objectives has gained massive traction.  As one of the first platforms in the property arena, Simple Backing (the peer-to-peer crowdfunder originally created in 2013) and the more recently inaugurated Simple Equity have played a prominent part in spearheading this drive.  Uniquely positioned to fund a broader scope of property deal structures, developers and fundraisers can explore whether crowdfunding can complement more traditional funding mechanisms, whilst simultaneously building their own reputation amongst the crowd / potential investors.  Investors can join the crowd and can collectively scrutinse projects that come on to the ‘Simple’ platforms, benefit from competitive rates... [Read More]