Monthly Archives: January 2017

Commentary on the January / February Property Investor´s Factfile

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The Property Investor Blog´s monthly factfile is principally aimed at UK property investors and traders and includes broad data on national / London house prices, the latest Limited Company (SPV) loan rates, LIBOR / SWAP rates, rental data, mortgage debt figures and information on the first time buyer sector.  This month´s issue (accessible here) presented a range of noteworthy market observations, using data from latter part of 2016*: Rightmove data pointed to an overall 1.1% asking price drop for English and Welsh properties coming on to the market in November and, in the same month, only 14% of RICS surveyors expected prices to increase over the subsequent 3 months (compared to 18% in October 2016); After 4 consecutive month-on-month post-Brexit drops, as at November 2016, Land Registry sold prices in the City of Westminster had broadly recovered to May 2016 levels. However, prices in the City of London fell by... [Read More]

Rightmove´s Sam Mitchell on the 2017 Lettings Market

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On the back of the most recent Rental Price Tracker (Q4 2016), the following summary is based on a short conversation with Sam Mitchell, Head of Lettings at Rightmove during the second week of January 2017.  We explored the validity of the portal´s data sources as a means of assessing local market dynamics; the reasoning behind the reported drop in London´s overall rental figures; the future impact of Section 24 (of the Finance Act 2015) and other top-down policy changes as well as some useful tips on achieving healthy yields moving forward. Rightmove base their yield calculation using rental and sales asking prices. With no equivalent of the Land Registry for the rental market, it can be difficult to establish real prices (i.e. what properties have actually been let for). However, the portal typically has around 300,000 rental properties on the site at any... [Read More]

Shawbrook Bank on the new Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) Criteria

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One of the strongest challenger banks in the marketplace, Shawbrook´s most recent financial data reported £1.5 billion of gross origination levels for the nine months to the end of September, an increase of 23% compared with the same period in 2015.  Brexit-related uncertainties in the economy have seemingly had a minimal impact on overall business to date and the lender has firm intentions to continue expansion in the buy to let space. We asked Stephen Johnson, Deputy CEO and Managing Director of the Property Division some questions regarding the impact of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) framework alongside some suggestions as to how buy to let investors can best prepare themselves in the new borrowing landscape. (1) Would you be able to provide readers with a broad overview of what the new Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) criteria essentially means for buy to let investors? The new PRA guidelines, effective 1st January... [Read More]

Post-Brexit Economic Development and Housing Planning (Planning Resource Event) – Part 2

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Part 2 – Focus on Post-Brexit Planning and Housing Supply The second part of the late-2016 Planning Resource event (see part 1 here) addressed a number of topics ranging from the “Brexit effect” on migration and household composition, infrastructure development and the future of planning through to innovative Housing Association-led development models and how London can overcome its affordable housing delivery challenges.  The afternoon was chaired by Duncan Sutherland, regeneration director at Sigma Capital Group Plc – a company at the forefront of the Private Rented Sector (PRS), working with local government to deploy an innovative £1 billion Sharia compliant fund to build 10,000 family houses. Starting with a presentation entitled “Calculating housing need in a post-Brexit period: What Brexit means for plan-making”, James Donagh, Director at Barton Willmore explored how future migration could affect the pace of development growth.... [Read More]

Post-Brexit Economic Development and Housing Planning (Planning Resource Event) – Part 1

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This and the following post aim to provide a broad synopsis of a Planning Resource event held towards the end of 2016.  I have split the content into two parts, the first covering the morning´s discussion on the wider implications of the Brexit decision on the UK economy, as a precursor to the afternoon´s conversations on planning for housing. Part 1 – Focus on Post-Brexit Economic Development   Published at the start of January 2017, perhaps facetiously, it´s worth caveating that there is a certain risk that much of the following write-up could well be obsolete at the time of reading given the political ambiguity and lack of specifics regarding the UK´s exit from European Union.  Such uncertainty is likely to remain, at the very least, until the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and formal talks start... [Read More]

What do Buy to Let Property Investors Need to Know About High-Speed 2?

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After almost 8 years of debate and consultation, the initial phase of the second high-speed rail network hybrid bill is expected to receive Royal Assent early this year. Running 335 miles from Euston (London), High-Speed 2 will be formed in a “Y” configuration with construction of Phase 1 aimed for completion in Birmingham by 2026 (the middle of the “Y”).  Phase two will connect Birmingham with Leeds (at the top right of the “Y”) and Manchester (at the top left of the “Y”), with the entire line scheduled for conclusion by 2033.  With trains running at 225 mph (362 km/hr), journey times between Manchester and London are expected to reduce by 30 minutes, simultaneously boosting connectivity with the Heathrow Express and Crossrail lines.  Both Leeds to Birmingham and Manchester to Birmingham journey times will halve and Toton, Derbyshire (the East Midlands... [Read More]

Estates Gazette PropTech Meet – What´s in Store for 2017?

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The late-2016 PropTech Summit was first of its kind to be hosted by the Estates Gazette magazine, bringing together a broad range of sector representatives to explore how innovation has a pivotal role in shaping the property industry´s future.  Summarised below are some of the salient points covered during two interrelated panel discussions followed by a brief outline of some of the platforms and software to watch out for during the course of 2017 and beyond. Real time data, algorithmic reasoning, predictive evaluation, machine learning, sophisticated financial modelling, data-driven design / decision making, drone surveying, virtual / augmented reality, geo-locational mapping… the list of tools looking to be taken more seriously by developers, investors and other stakeholders continues to amass.  Yet comments that “the industry is old fashioned and inefficient” and of the need to cut through “the rhetoric of property... [Read More]