BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 28/04/2021

BSI LOOKS TO NEW CODE TO SALVE THE WOES CAUSED BY CLADDING CRISIS

The government which has had several debates regarding the problems associated with cladding, sparked by the Grenfell tragedy, has now tasked the British Standards Institution to take evidence and formulate a ‘code’ that will act as a roadmap moving forward for all.

The consultation period is a month and ends in May, at the end of it, it is hoped that all stakeholders will clearly understand their responsibilities when planning and building, and what materials can be used and the correct way to construct buildings.

At present there are of course tens of thousands of homeowners affected by the cladding problems, with many facing huge personal bills to cover remedial works, or finding themselves unable to move.

CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION HAS BIG PLANS – CONVERT OFFICES TO HOMES

It has just been announced that over the next decade and in direct response to the pandemic, the London Corporation is looking to allow around 1,500 properties to come into being in the city centre. This will be achieved by refurbishment and repurposing of commercial buildings and new developments.

Other inniatives being looked at is utilising commercial buildings as rented accommodation to generate an environment for new technology businesses in the area, to fill the gap caused by some businesses pivoting their work model to have workforces WFH.

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a reality and if other city and town centres follow suit, as work is done in a different way. Which again will change the dynamics of the commercial and residential real estate markets.

LSL IN THE MONEY FOR Q1 OF 2021 – POSTING 623% UPTICK IN PROFITS

It has just been announced by LSL that it has made a £13.1M profit between Jan – March this year, opposed to £2.1M profit for the same period last year, which was itself pre-pandemic. There are a whole host of reasons for this including the fact that LSL has a strong core in the financial services vertical which means it took advantage of the upsurge in the housing market.

EWE MOVE SEES GROWTH

Ewe move which is a franchise model and part of ‘The Property Franchise Group’, has seen income increase by more than 50% last year, reaching £5M, it has also seen the number of franchisors increase by 10% to 135. Clearly a strong housing market is good news for all agents.

TWELVE IS THE NEW NORMAL FOR ESTATE AGENTS

The typical estate agent is agreeing 12 property sales a month at present, which is almost a 10% rise from 11 sales a month previously. What may hamper this heightened activity is the lack of new stock coming to the market, tempered by some vendors feeling unsure.

The uncertainty being, what will the property market be like when buyers do not have a stamp duty holiday, adding cost to their move, and where do they move if they did sell?

If you have a view – please let us all know by emailing me at [email protected] – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward.