investing

Today I’m taking part in #BoostYourBrandIntropost by Aarti Parmar – Brand Strategist to help people get a better insight into me and what you can expect if you follow or connect with me. Feel free to join in.

Aarti’s four questions are:

1. What can people expect to read about in my feed?

Here on LI I post on a Wednesday (ok ok – I’ll do better) about Property Property and more Property (if I’m not moaning about the broken Planning Regime or bad auction choices).

🏠 Property 1 : Mentoring. Property is a lonely place and a good mentor is worth their weight in gold to help navigate the pitfalls and challenges of this complexed landscape.

🏠 Property 2 : Development and construction. Building ground up. The journey/the cost/the joy/the stress

🏠 Property 3 : Investment. Being a socially conscious landlord and renting to those who are disadvantaged and don’t tick all the boxes. #

And that’s just the beginning.

I also write about my passions. Racism/Equality and young people today. I would like to feel that before my lights go out I would have contributed in some small way to creating a more balanced society where young people have a chance to get on to the property ladder and the colour of your skin does not hold you back from your path.

2. What type of clients do I most love working with?

✅Those READY to go in property. Ie those who have some form of investment (small is ok); understand risk and want to learn, earn and eventually own.

✅I also love to work with/rent to disadvantaged tenants who turn their lives around through having a roof over their head and step into greatness.

3. Which part of the world am I posting from?

I am posting from South London. Close to my property patch in Croydon.

4. Something that’s on my bucket list to do, be or have?

🏝Dream travel destinations include Mustique in the Caribbean and Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.

👩🏽‍🏫 I’ve been honoured to be invited to preach, 3 times now and want to explore that calling deeper.

🗣 Some day pull off a show stopping TEDTalk.

Time Out – I’m dropping the 🎤🙌🏾
📸 ANNIE ARMITAGE

#BoostYourBrandIntroPost #propertymentor #propertydevelopment #challenge

This is nothing new in the world of property but one way to get on with the business of creating much needed homes for local people at decent rents is to buy commercial and turn it into residential.

Permitted Development which comes from a general planning permission granted not by the local authority but by the Government has opened up the possibility of turning many empty shops, warehouses, offices etc into housing.

With SO many empty shops locally this has made a real difference especially to smaller developers and the best bit is, you don’t have to wait a year or two for full planning permission before you can start. Obviously there is some red tape but little in comparison to the standard planning regime.

I’m thrilled to be getting on with my much needed job of creating decent places for people to live that they can afford.

#development #housing #pd #planning #commercialbuildings #womeninconstruction

The planning system is broken

Croydon is our patch. We build, renovate, refurbish homes in and around the area so believe we know it well; serve and support it well too.

Croydon (like many Boroughs) needs decent affordable housing so when you are hit with a refusal to ‘improve’ an existing space you might not be blamed for thinking what a contradiction.

Call me disgruntled but with good reason!
What if you’ve painstakingly put together the perfect plans for your building project; gone to preplanning adding more cost and time (six months in our case) to your project.

You’ve been guided how to change your plans so that it meets the Councils criteria and might be looked at more favourably. You have followed the Council’s advice to the letter only for your planning application to be refused against their own recommendations and criteria. That same criteria they changed halfway through your application already in progress.

The worst of it is that the process has taken a year to receive a negative decision! Yes, you might well be disgruntled and understand why I say the planning system is broken. What now?

We can stay disgruntled or do something about it. Our next steps:

* We’ve found a decent planning consultant – they are steeped in magnifying the devil in the detail and pulling out points you wouldn’t have, ready for Appeal.
* We’ll attempt to speak to our planning case officer for further clarification. Frankly it is highly unlikely but well worth a try.
* We’ll launch an Appeal (within three months, six months for larger developments).

The good news is that statistics show that about one-third of Planning Appeals are successful! The decision is taken fully out of the hands of the Council and independently reviewed.

If all else fails. We’ll submit a totally new improved application with the lessons you’ve learned (and a few choice words). No/giving up is not an option when there is no real justification for it.

Small developers need more support from their local Councils to deliver decent and affordable housing.

Anyone else in the same boat right now? I would love to know how long your application took.

Sustainability has become the focus of some developers throughout the past years, with many projects being proposed and some even being actually built. However, are people practically ready for the change?

Building sustainable homes isn’t as easy and quick as building homes with concrete and other harmful materials. Different techniques are needed in order to build a well-structured home with recycled materials and sourcing those has also been a struggle for developers as they aren’t available in great mass as other materials are, therefore come at a high cost. Hence why many developers give up before even trying.

Despite the struggles, some projects have been completed around England and those have attracted a lot of attention for their look, design and for being good for the environment.

The Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) in South London was the first urban eco-village to be built on a larger scale in the UK back in 2002. With 100 homes, offices, a college and community facilities, this project is one of the largest examples that although building sustainably is difficult, the benefits are immense.

So if BedZED has been so successful, why aren’t we seeing every new home being built sustainably? We know cost is the cause so may be the focus should be on driving that cost down from the top. Even capping costs to stimulate the growth.

Labour costs we know are also high as the techniques and equipment used to build homes with those materials vary, which demands a premium, resulting in an even bigger bill for the developers.

The high cost of completing these projects reflects in the price of renting and selling them too. A vicious circle. 

That said in my own research carried out last week. Many stated that they would absolutely buy a sustainable home. They just needed to find one to buy!

What would make sustainable houses actually sustainable to build?

In order to cut prices for buyers and renters, the building itself cannot be extremely hard to build, which means that the cost of recycled materials, labour, equipment, and adequate appliances have to go down substantially too. The prices have come down a lot in the past 5 years, given new technologies have emerged at a lower cost but, most developers are still reluctant to build in mass, for now at least.

In conclusion, the housing market has evolved substantially in the last decade – which brings hope for a shift in the next 10 years. However, currently the reality is, eco houses aren’t as sustainable as they should be.