After two years of unprecedented challenges faced by real estate, experts share their predictions for 2022.

Mary-Anne Bowring

Mary-Anne Bowring

Group managing director, Ringley

This is proving to be a difficult year for bold predictions; however, some things will continue to be a certainty. The UK’s BTR sector will continue to see waves of institutional investment from large investors as it

continues to be recognised as a profitable residential asset class. With more people choosing to rent rather than buy, the

demand levels for BTR are closing in on the level of supply.

Large investors such as Lloyds Bank and Goldman Sachs have entered the sector in recent months and we can expect more of these heavyweights to continue to show interest in UK BTR.

Despite the knock-on impact of coronavirus on the UK residential market, London’s housing market is continuing to pick up momentum and this will continue throughout 2022.

Benjamin Willmore

Benjamin Willmore

Chief executive, YoooServ

The serviced office and flexible workspace sector is booming and maturing; it is no longer the domain of start-ups and tech companies – multinationals are rethinking their property strategies to support flexibility and diversity and help attract talent.

But what is the office in 2022? It’s more than just property – it needs to be a place that inspires solutions and creativity, a place to enable business, mentoring and in-work socialising, which is why workplace wellbeing will be the decider between signing up and not signing up. Employers and employees want to feel proud about where they work. They want A-grade space that is tech enabled, an onsite gym and other amenities like a bar or restaurant with a quality food offer.

At Yoooserv, we’ve got a pipeline of spaces opening across the South East in 2022 and will be looking for new sites to further our reach.

John Downes

John Downes

Group managing director, Langtree

If 2021 showed us anything, it was the power of teamwork. The year posed plenty of challenges, but at Langtree we actually came out of it in a stronger position. The effort involved has become corporate muscle memory now and whatever the coming year throws at us, I’m confident the team can meet it with resolve.

Once again we’ve seen the flexibility, innovativeness and sheer bloody-mindedness of the UK’s private sector and that has given us the confidence to push on with a number of major projects through our various joint ventures. Across our portfolio, we’ll be developing new laboratories, housing, major logistics hubs and new commercial premises, as well as pursuing several key planning permissions.

The employment generation will be significant from our investment alone and the end users we’ll be aiming to attract to places like Parkside in St Helens will hopefully be game-changers. That’s something I’m looking forward to with relish.

Majed Chaaraoui

Majed Chaaraoui

Chief executive, Insurami

A number of trends accelerated by the pandemic will persist into 2022. Given the challenges of last year, landlords need to be more aligned to the financial risk of their tenants so we expect landlords to ‘lean in’ to this with more leases incorporating a greater sharing of risk via management agreements, deposit guarantees, fit-out partnerships and more flexible leasing terms generally.

In exchange for greater financial reward, real estate will continue its transition from a ‘bond-like’ investment to more of an ‘operating company’ approach.

My hope is that new ‘win-win’ innovations are adopted into the leasing process and embraced by both landlords and tenants. If this is the case, the next wave of proptech innovation will be less about operations and smart buildings and more related to new leasing models and fintech solutions at the point of the transaction – leading to a more efficient process for all.

Continue to part 12 here

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Predictions for 2022: Brace yourself…