June 15th, 2010
Property developers could be hit hard by the new government’s proposed cuts to the funding for social housing, warned an industry expert this week.
Writing in Property Mentor, market analyst Peter Franklin said that the changes could lead to scores of affordable property construction projects “grinding to a halt” throughout 2010-11.
Proposed changes to the planning system will also make future developments more difficult, Mr Franklin said.
He cited figures published by the National Housing Federation, which said that cuts to social housing funds and other changes were likely to slash the number of affordable homes projects by property developers by a massive 65 per cent – or by a total of 20,390 homes.
With 4.5 million people currently on the list for social housing and another 2.6 million people living in overcrowded conditions, Mr Franklin warned that the situation could rapidly deteriorate unless ministers thought very carefully about their financial decisions.
New Housing Minister Grant Shapps has already addressed the issue, albeit in a gloomy manner, asserting last week that around 150 social housing developments face being scrapped due to the £610 million public debt that he is charged with cutting.
The government now plans to axe £100 million from the National Affordable Housing Programme, which was meant to make possible the construction of 59,000 new properties by the end of the 2010-11 financial year. The cutback will now reduce the number of houses being built by 1,453, warned Mr Franklin, going on to warn that “many property developers who have invested millions into developing sites for new property developments are now facing the prospect of having money promised to them by the government withdrawn.”
The National Housing Federation is seeking a meeting with the minister to discuss the crisis.
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June 11th, 2010
The self-storage industry is urging companies to get a dose of Caffeine when it comes to boosting online search results for their business.
This week, search engine giant Google revealed that its new, improved web indexing system – known as Caffeine – has been live for the past few days, with performance levels that are at least 50 per cent more efficient.
Under the old indexing system, Google searches were sometimes plagued by the long delays between websites posting updates and this new information appearing on the search engine’s results. Self-storage firms were among those disadvantaged by this, as it meant that the newest information on their websites or blog entries was not always available to potential customers.
Caffeine will hopefully change all that, thanks to the sheer amount of computer power it’s harnessing. It uses nearly 100 million gigabytes of electronic storage and adds hundreds of thousands of gigabytes worth of information to its database each day.
For self-storage companies, quick access to the latest updates can be very important, because the newest content on these companies’ sites tends to be items such as discount vouchers and special offers, many of which are time limited.
There is no shortage of online interest for self-storage companies, insisted Michael Schulman of StorageClicks.com. During a presentation at Massachusetts Self Storage Association’s Northeast 2010 Trade Show, he revealed that in the US alone there are 823,000 web searches for “self storage” every month.
And a recent article for Inside Self-Storage magazine by online self storage marketplace site SpareFoot.com’s co-founder Chuck Gordon, many self-storage firms obtain nearly half of all their customers through the internet.
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June 8th, 2010
Property developers take note – according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), retrofitting is due to take off due to the requirements of the government’s environmentally-friendly construction agenda.
The FMB said that many new jobs in construction will be created over the next few years based upon the need to ensure retrofitting of energy efficient and carbon reduction technologies.
It pointed out that the latest figures to be published by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply reveal that there has been an increase in construction recruitment over the past month. The statistics also indicate that the volume of construction work available is now at its highest level since September 2007.
FMB director of external affairs Brian Berry said that much of this was down to the government’s insistence that existing homes be made more energy efficient, requiring much retrofitting of carbon reduction materials.
The requirement for carbon reduction systems in new homes also means that the technologies required are being sought after by property developers.
The new government is committed to actually encouraging a green agenda and making our existing homes more energy efficient,” Mr Berry said.
“I think we have already seen an upturn there in more entrepreneurial construction companies taking advantage of that. In terms of the retrofitting market and energy efficiency, that is where the job creation will be in the next few years.”
In one example last month, British Gas opened a green skills training centre in south Wales which aims to help advise and train some 1,300 people in readiness for new construction and civil engineering work.
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June 4th, 2010
A new survey by Access Self Storage has indicated that men are more likely to keep treasured items of sentimental value than women.
The firm polled both male and female students – a group most likely to use self-storage units – and asked them which three things they would wish to keep forever. Over two thirds of male respondents (67 per cent) said that they would want to hold on to photos of their friends and family, compared to just under half of all women (49 per cent).
Some 24 per cent of men said that they would also like to keep a special gift forever, compared to only 11 per cent of female respondents.
The ratio was reversed when 36 per cent of women said that they would like to keep a favoured item of clothing, compared to just 9 per cent of men. Of these items, 13 per cent of women opted for a favourite pair of jeans.
When quizzed on their favourite items of technology, 37 per cent of men said that they would like to keep their computer, compared to 23 per cent of women. However, the differences between the sexes narrowed when it came to the crunch. When both men and women were asked to choose between keeping their laptop and mobile phone or all of their furniture, 81 per cent of men and 78 per cent of women chose the technology.
Access Self Storage spokeswoman Jill Martin said: “The end of the summer term is the time of year when many students are moving back home and are considering the things they want to keep but cant easily transport, and those they want to throw away.”
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June 2nd, 2010
A leading supplier of construction materials has warned that certain materials aimed at increasing energy efficiency and carbon reduction are being severely underused by the property developer community.
SIG operations director Vince Lunn urged builders and property developers to start incorporating green technologies as standard practice in their projects.
Mr Lunn gave as an example a copolymer that has been developed by SIG with the intention of being used in buildings with a low thermal mass to prevent the rapid fluctuation of room temperatures.
He explained that “the copolymer sites in the walls and at 22 degrees it melts. When it melts it takes up some latent heat in order to do that, so that actually cools down that building or that room.”
“As the temperature drops and as it reaches 18 degrees, it solidifies and actually gives some of that heat back.”
Although the material is already in use, Mr Lunn stressed that it can potentially be used in many different parts of a building than just the walls. He said that it was down to the construction industry to think outside the box and innovate to ensure that more carbon reduction technology was utilised.
“One of the challenges we face all the time is we work with lots of manufacturers and we bring a lot of products and I challenge the idea that it is becoming more mainstream,” he said, insisting that property developers need to be more “imaginative.”
This looks likely to be an uphill struggle, however. At the start of the week, the Department of Energy and Climate Change announced that it is rejecting any new applicants to the Low Carbon Building Programme due to spending cuts.
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May 28th, 2010
The global economic downturn has made it far harder for property developers to obtain necessary finance, and recently the head of one of the UK’s largest property companies has warned that easier lending conditions are not likely to come back “for the foreseeable future.”
British Land chief executive Chris Grigg told The Times newspaper that the ongoing financial crisis has a number of long-term knock on effects, chief among which is that the banks remain very wary of financing property developers’ schemes compared to other kinds of lending on real estate deals.
Speaking recently at the British Council for Offices’ annual conference, he had predicted that smaller property developers will need to enter into partnerships with sovereign wealth funds and private equity companies in order to continue with their projects.
Mr Grigg expanded on this subject in his interview with The Times, saying: “Will banks finance development? Yes, but at much, much lower levels of leverage.”
“Development, even in London, will be more modest than it has been for a long period, and the little that gets done will tend to be by well-capped, larger companies.”
He went on to say that regulations concerning capital adequacy had often acted a brake on development during the boom period of the previous decade. These regulations direct banks to maintain enough cash reserves to cover the riskier areas of lending.
British Land’s figures show that even when the property market was at its peak in 2007, the development of London office space only reached around six million square feet, whereas during the 1990-91 boom they reached 14 million square feet. Mr Grigg pointed out that since 2007, capital adequacy rules have been tightened still further.
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May 27th, 2010
Combative US property developer Donald Trump has revealed that he is pressing on with his controversial scheme to build a massive golfing resort on Scotland’s north-eastern coast
Mr Trump flew into Aberdeen this week to promote the property development project and to answer the criticisms of protesters and locals who are utterly opposed to the £750 million scheme.
He told the Financial Times: “With the world’s financial markets crashing, with the euro and other currencies – except for the dollar – being at an all-time low, I want to highlight the fact that this development is being built with cash and does not rely on financing.”
“Sixty million dollars has already been invested in the project by me – it is being built out of my back pocket. I do not even have a mortgage or financing on the land – unlike many other developments that are announced and never built.”
The Scottish Government granted Mr Trump planning permission for the resort two years ago. The development entails two coastal championship golf courses, with an adjoining five-star hotel with 450 bedrooms and a golfing academy, along with 950 holiday homes and 500 private family residences – plus 36 luxury golfing villas.
Last autumn the first landscaping work began on the site, with marram grass being planted on its sand dunes. Mr Trump told the newspaper that he planned to name the dunes “The Great Dunes of Scotland.”
He explained: “This name is a tribute to my mother, Mary Macleod, who was born and raised in Scotland – and very much loved her country – and also to Scotland itself.”
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May 21st, 2010
With the new Conservative-LibDem coalition government setting out its stall for the next parliamentary session, property developers and building companies are anxiously waiting to see what can be done to improve the sluggish state of British construction.
Although some 4.5 million people are currently on waiting lists for housing – a record number – fewer houses are actually being built than at any time since World War II, and the recent collapse in the value of development land cannot be blamed for the entirety of the problem.
Property developers have repeatedly complained about the long-winded and complex planning process that is currently required before construction can begin – and government proposals to give local councils increased powers in relation to planning could increase the red tape burden.
Planning and urban regeneration experts are calling on ministers to ensure that any planned changes to the UK planning regime are properly trialled and tested before being rolled out nationally, in order to prevent the stifling of any recovery in the building market.
“A swifter and more flexible planning process is needed, together with a sustained increase in property prices, to enable currently mothballed sites to be developed,” Guy Jenkinson of property consultants Bidwells told the Independent newspaper.
“This scenario could be hampered by the Liberal Democrat/Conservative plan to give more power to local government in planning decisions and is of concern to house builders who perceive a lengthening of the already lengthy planning process.”
Other concerns among property developers revolve around “green” proposals from the new government. Although the industry generally welcomes a focus on sustainable development and carbon neutrality, such measures could hamper a recovering property market.
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May 19th, 2010
A massive collection of military vehicles painstakingly amassed over the years by Lancashire property developer Brian Boys will go under the hammer at the end of next month.
Mr Boys has decided to hold on to a few particular favourites, but the entire remainder of his stunning collection – valued at more than a million pounds – will be up for auction, including battle tanks, a rare Sexton self propelled gun, armoured personnel carriers and armoured cars. Alongside such big beasts are many smaller vehicles, such as field guns, motorbikes and jeeps. There is even a Ford Model T Fire Engine, which is believed to have once belonged to movie legend Charlie Chaplin. In total, some 150 items will be available for purchase.
The property developer, who is chairman of property developers B&E Boys, said that he started off collecting Dinky Toys as a boy and after some time in the army, matured into a desire to own the real thing. Over the past few decades he has attended scores of military fairs and obtained other vehicles from private collections.
However, Mr Boys has made the difficult decision to sell the collection due to retirement, although he has admitted that “it’s given me the opportunity to make lots of friends worldwide and I shall miss that camaraderie.”
The auction will take place on 28-29 June at the Manchester office of plant and machinery auctioneers Sanderson Weatherall. Bids of up to £100,000 are thought to be likely, and online bidding facilities will be available for any interested parties who are unable to make it in person on the days in question.
The company’s auction manager Stephen Jepson commented: “”This is one of the largest private collections of such vehicles in the whole of the UK and its sale represents a fantastic opportunity for people to invest in the military heritage of this and other nations.”
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March 17th, 2010
B & E Boys complete construction work on Riggs Rochdale garden centre after extensive fire damage.
Following a devastating fire towards the back end of 2009 Gordon Riggs Garden Centre in Rochdale had a significant portion of their retail area put out of action. Following an instruction from their Insurers, B and E Boys commenced work on re-building the burnt out section of the Garden Centre. This work in now nearing completion and the Garden Centre will be fully operational in time for the Easter Break. The design included the re-instatement of a faceted glazed roof, which can be seen as you approach from the M62 at Junction 22. The Architect and the Structural Engineer was Thomasons.
B & E Boys are often called in do undertake fire damage work on behalf of unsurers and have previously been employed to undertake work on buildings such as the Poundland Store in Cheetham Hill, and Viridors waste recycling plant in St Helens.
B & E Boys are able to offer quick mobilisation where business recovery times are essential.
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