All articles by Harry Downes
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InsightThe BTR sector is primed for success
Institutional property investment in the UK has historically given residential a wide berth.
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InsightBTL cannot compete with BTR
Buy-to-let used to be all the rage. Developers keen to score some early runs packaged up enough ‘off-plan sales’ to make a Far East sales trip worth the air tickets and liver damage.
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InsightPrivate sector BTR players can deliver affordable rents
The build-to-rent (BTR) sector has been trumpeted as a viable and potentially substantial deliverer of new homes
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InsightLonger tenancies help build better BTR communities
The government has recently commenced a consultation process with the aim of ‘Overcoming the Barriers to Longer Tenancies in the Private Rented Sector’.
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InsightBudget is just part of the solution to the housing crisis
The chancellor’s Budget last week focused heavily on housing, with a cut in stamp duty for first-time buyers being a helpful boost for those already possessing the means and will to step on to the housing ladder.
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InsightBuild-to-rent fan club is good news for developers
At last - a supplementary planning guide that cuts through the froth and says what it means.
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InsightCan anyone help the boomerang generation?
At last, after 35 years of undersupply, the major parties have woken up to the crisis in the residential property market.
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InsightThe housing white paper – fix or fudge?
The long-delayed housing white paper was intended to identify how the government will deliver its one million new homes by the 2020 target. While much has already been written about the document, only one question matters: will it succeed in that aim?
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InsightHome truths: how the chancellor could help solve the housing crisis
In less than a week, Philip Hammond will deliver his first Autumn Statement. Given the property market’s calls for assistance from the new chancellor have been among the most clear and consistent of any sector, will we finally get the help we need to address the housing crisis?
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InsightRESI: time to hang up the beach towels and get down to housebuilding
Holiday season is winding down and the annual retreat from the beach is under way.
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NewsBuild-to-rent is a solution, but sector lacks government support
The government has set a target of delivering one million new homes by 2020.
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InsightWe need less hand-wringing and more housebuilding
The current topic of choice for property journalists and lately a growing number of politicians is the trumpeting of the uncontrollable toxic spread of rogue landlords (cue hands over terrified faces and cries of “OMG!”).
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InsightWhy so little progress helping ‘rentysomethings’?
There is a link between the reams of documentation that propose government strategies to grow the rate of housing delivery and the diminishing green belt.
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InsightIn our privately funded property sector, are rent caps ever acceptable?
The answer, as we all know, is ‘of course not, rent caps would be the end of the world as we know it, a disaster!’ Or perhaps not.
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InsightDon’t make PRS schemes compete with build-to-sell
So, another week and another government policy intended to help struggling developers increase the delivery of new homes is rubbished in the national press, as its unintended outcome will be to deliver a windfall to developers at the expense of hard-pressed local authorities.
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InsightHome truths: Renting can work for all — if landlords can get property at the right price
Ask anyone the question “are you better off buying or renting”, and the answer will practically always be buying.
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InsightWhy institutional investment in the PRS continues to be slow
For months now there have been resigned comments about the many claims of new institutional investment into the private rented sector, only for the promised ‘imminent announcement’ never to materialise.
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InsightPRS landlords hold all the aces — and kings, queens and jacks
Residential property is neatly categorised into “use classes”.
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MarketsA private-rented use class can clean up the sector’s image
As the average age of first-time buyers heads rapidly towards 40, the government has begun to address how it might promote the private-rented sector.
