Estates Gazette Property Podcasts

EG Like Sunday Morning: Wellbeing in real estate

On World Mental Health Day, deputy editor Tim Burke and offices reporter Alex Daniel join host Jess Harrold for another weekly round-up, including an extensive look at the results of EG's latest Wellbeing Survey.

Tim digs into the detail of the survey results, not least the effects that the pandemic and home-working have had on the real estate industry's collective mental health - and the further impact anticipated from a return to the office.

Speaking of which, Alex has major news that underlines the rising appetite for office investment in the city - and shares a particularly smart example that may be heading onto the market.

But can these two titans of property knowledge be separated in the quiz of the week? And can Jess shamelessly shoehorn in a plug for the EG Striders Steptober fundraising efforts for LandAid? The answer to that last question is absolutely yes:

http://join.landaid.org/fundraisers/EGStriders

 

 

‘We can’t stop the conversation’: Wellbeing and real estate after Covid

Ahead of this week’s World Mental Health Day, EG has published the findings of its third annual survey of wellbeing and mental health in the real estate industry.

As companies explore whether a return to some degree of post-Covid-19 normality is now possible, we wanted to know about real estate professionals' wellbeing during the pandemic. 

In this 35-minute podcast, EG deputy editor Tim Burke is joined by Juliet Smithson, head of operations at LionHeart; Louise Ashley, human resources business partner at Savills; and Clara Dawson, HSE and wellbeing business partner at The Crown Estate. 

Our guests discuss the findings of this year’s survey and the wellbeing lessons real estate should take from the pandemic.

For more wellbeing and mental health coverage from EG, head to our dedicated hub. 

Voice of the Region: Wiltshire – Retail reawakens

Retail is bouncing back with a bang in Wiltshire with vacancy rates plummeting and a slew of independent operators offering a bright glimpse of the future, according to Myddelton & Major partner in commercial Dean Speer.

Myddelton & Major, which operates mainly across south and mid-Wiltshire as well as neighbouring Hampshire and Dorset, comfortably tops the Wiltshire Radius On Demand Rankings in deals numbers, and sits a close second for transacted space in the county. Its core market is Salisbury, which last year became the UK’s first full fibre city, and Speer is optimistic about the future.

Speer says retail void rates in Salisbury, which had to overcome the effects of the Novichok poisonings before covid arrived, have fallen from 12% - 8% as independents – including a fishmonger – take space across the city and occupiers line up for vacant BHS and Debenhams units. Industrial is also a strong performer with occupiers ranging from specialist art companies to suppliers of Japanese garden products.

Why social value is critical to the evolution of UK life sciences

In this episode of the EG Property Podcast, EG editor Samantha McClary is joined by a quartet of experts to discuss the role that the booming life sciences sector could and should be playing unlock social value across the UK.

Life science clusters have been successful at creating high-value jobs, but are often dependent on outside recruitment, so how can developers, universities and entrepreneurs ensure they maximise ‘social value’ for local economies - including employment, educational and supply chain opportunities? 

EXPERT PANEL:

• Ryan McKenzie, associate director, economics and planning, Savills  
• Steve Duffield, site director, Wilton Centre
• Dr Thomas Meany, CFO, OpenCell
• Jane Holt, business development director, University of Southampton Science Park

“Don’t accept the residential market as it is. Ask for better and demand flexibility.” Inside JLL and Lavanda‘s rival to Airbnb

JLL's launch of JLL Short Stays in partnership with Lavanda last month is set to plug a gap in the market with a platform "to rival Airbnb". 

JLL director Sam Winnard and Lavanda's chief executive Frederik Lerche-Lerchenborg joined EG's Emily Wright on the latest episode of Tech Talk Radio to reveal the thinking behind the launch and why they believe the residential sector needs to be better when it comes to embracing flexibility. 

The new booking platform has been launched to offer business and leisure travellers professionally managed and fully flexible short-term rental accommodation in the UK.

"We realised there is a huge amount of demand for medium term,  quality inventory," said Lerche-Lerchenborg. "People are relocating. People are in between long-term tenancies and the relationship with the office is changing. People are increasingly looking to book 3-month or 6-month stays, especially around the UK. But finding that high quality inventory is very difficult.

"We have a whole load of different partners including JLL clients but also other big asset managers like Greystar and Blackstone which means we have a lot of inventory."

JLL's Winnard adds: "With the short and long let markets, it has become more confusing as to what sits where. Applicants are coming to us with demand for 4 or 5-month tenancies. Ultimately we are seeing a closing in of two markets that aren’t as polarised as they once were."

The duo added that while Airbnb has dominated the short stay space for a number of years, they are hoping to access a more specific area of the market as people hunt for corporate relocations. 

"Logging on and booking via an app like the Airbnb experience is what people want," said Lerche-Lerchenborg. "It is the perfect moment in time for this as the real estate market is maturing and we can deliver this technology to create a platform people want.

"I'd say to anyone looking for this sort of flexibility 'don’t accept the residential market as it is. Ask for more, ask for better and demand flexibility'."

EG Like Sunday Morning: Hair-raising talk on CVAs, EVs, business rates and Vikings

Senior writer Piers Wehner and court reporter James Lumley join Jess Harrold for EG's latest weekly round-up.

Lumley tackles a pair of major judgments arising out of the pandemic - an unsuccessful challenge to the Caffè Nero CVA, and a ruling that the Picturehouse chain must pay up for rent arrears at its flagship cinema at London's Trocadero.

Wehner looks at Labour's conference pledge to scrap business rates, and how the industry has responded to such an ambitious plan - and, as the country is gripped by a fuel crisis, shares what he has learned about electric vehicles and the "chicken and egg" problem standing in the way of more widespread adoption.

”It always amazes me that the smoke and mirrors get so far.” Why time is nearly up for the tech firms with nothing to offer real estate.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” So said Leonardo da Vinci, a man who knew a few things about problem solving. As the application of technology and digital innovation to solve problems within the real estate sector continues to dominate strategies across the board, the power of simplicity comes into increasingly sharp focus.

Of the many efficiencies offered by real estate tech, using digital technologies to expedite long-standing processes remains one of the most business critical. And while the rationale behind this strategy is simple, actually implementing the right tools for the job remains a challenge.

Fitting then, that this should be the discussion point for our latest episode of Tech Talk Radio. EG Head of Content Emily Wright was joined by Teresa Lee, vice president of Roundhill Ventures, managing director of Search Acumen Andrew Lloyd and Marcus Moufarriage, founder and chief executive of Ility to talk about how even the simplest ideas need careful execution.

“It is pretty well known that the real estate sector is quite behind in tech adoption,” said Roundhill Ventures’ Teresa Lee. “That means a lot of the things we are seeing now are what we perceive to be quite simple. But that also means there are a lot of opportunities to move the needle quite quickly. So, it is a great thing the technology is here, even if it is a little behind other industries.”

Ility’s Marcus Moufarriage agreed adding: “I think it’s a good thing there is movement at all because there has certainly been a tendency for owners and the real estate sector more generally to say 2we took the risk, we built the building. Now we are getting 20% and we will just go to the Cotswolds and come back in 15 years when your lease is up and renew you. It used to be a very light touch and very low service. But that’s changing.”

Search Acumen’s Andrew Lloyd said: “There has been no real pressure on the industry to change until recently. If you look at any sector that has gone through modernisation or digitisation it always starts with the simple, time-consuming things first and then moves its way into more complex operations. But you have to do the simple stuff first.”

True. But that doesn’t mean it is any easier to tackle these problems in the first instance. Steve Jobs once famously said: “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”

So, how can the real estate sector clean up it’s thinking?

The answer really comes down to necessity. The panel universally agreed that the pandemic has left real estate with no choice but to innovate and, by default, find that simpler state of mind and start to break down straight-forward problems. The biggest challenge will be separating out the tech companies with something to offer, and those cashing in on an industry now under intense pressure to change. Quickly.

Search Acumen’s Lloyd said: “There are lots of firms jumping into the space. There are many solutions to problems that don't exist out there.”

Ility’s Moufarriage agreed although added that the pressure is on the tech side fo the equation too, now more than ever. “It always amazes me that the smoke and mirrors gets as far as it gets,” he said. “I don’t think 2021 will be the year things unravel but I think next year it probably will for those who can’t actually deliver when real decisions are being made. Ongoing uncertainty means that decision-making process is a bit stalled right now so I think there is still room to wing it a bit. But if you are out there not really solving a problem and what you offer is not digital transformation but is just dressed up as that then the cracks will start to show.”

So those are some of the pitfalls. The panel also took some time to consider the signs of success. How does a real estate business measure how impactful their tech strategy has been? How do they know when they have played their cards right?

“Question number one, are we still in business?” This is how Search Acumens’ Lloyd would kick off the analysis. “Have we survived? Are we able to trade and continue to be successful in our market space? Are we winning market share over our competition? Is this tech working for us as an investment?”

Roundhill’s Lee added: “You need to set very specific goals for whatever technology you are trying to implement. So if you are implementing a new property management system, then you should know what you expect like decreasing the cost by 25%. The goal should be as tangible and specific as that. Treat it like any other project.”

Voice of the Region: South Wales – Enter the dragon

South Wales is building back from the pandemic with a raft of industrial start-ups and with leisure operators keen to fill vacant space on the high street, believes Fletcher Morgan associate Matthew Jones.

Fletcher Morgan is the highest placed regional independent agency in the Radius On Demand Rankings for South Wales with 338,699 sq ft of space transacted across 40 deals so far this year. Jones, meanwhile, has done the third most individual deals (22) for the whole of Wales, with only Knight Frank’s Neil Francis and Mark Sutton having done more.

Jones says the office market has been the toughest in living memory but is starting to spring back to life, albeit with occupiers less interested in conventional leases. Small industrial units, meanwhile, are selling in their droves to local occupiers and the industrial estates of South Wales are now high on the priority lists of investment funds. Meanwhile, a variety of leisure occupiers are setting up in the high street, helped by the fact some 20% of the population of Cardiff are students.

The Struggle was real: The highs and lows of PedElle 2021

In this 30-minute episode of the EG Property Podcast, something of a sequel to PedElle Power: Fundraising, bond building and making women more visible in real estate , EG editor Samantha McClary sits down with Avison Young’s Emma Turnbull, SEGRO’s Annabel Freeman and Simple Works’ Sinéad Conneely to share what the ride meant to them, what it means more widely for women in the built environment and how important the fundraising the event does is to charities like Coram.

For those that might not know, the annual PedElle is a charity cycle ride for women across the built environment organised by Club Peloton. The ride, which raises money for Coram and brings women in real estate together, took place in the Cumbrian hills on 16,17 and 18 September.

Some 35 women cycled more than 400km and climbed close to 7,000m (Everest, for comparison, is around 8,800m) over the three days. On day one, the cyclists were treated to The Struggle, an infamous climb in the Lake District that offers both lung and thigh-busting gradients.

However, it was those tough climbs that reminded everyone on the ride exactly why they were there – to help the thousands of children who are struggling through life to find forever families and safe places to grow up.

So far, the riders have raised more than £38,000 for Coram. If you’d like to help them top £40,000, please click here to donate.

The ride was made possible with support from Avison Young, Citygrove, DP9, Forsters, Knight Frank and Legal & General Investment Management

EG Like Sunday Morning: Gove levels up, Collective failings and more

Residential editor Emma Rosser joins Jess Harrold for EG's weekly round-up.

Delivering a tour de force on resi issues, Rosser tackles the industry reaction to Michael Gove's new gig; his rebranded title as secretary of state for levelling up, communities and housing; and some of the major items on his rather long to-do list.

In addition, she looks at the BTR reaction to the plans for a residential developer property tax (or resi deve levy, as it should be known), the rise and fall of The Collective and a new player entering the housing field.

But, as she faces a one-off return to the classic quiz format, has she been paying attention to the remaining news of the week?