WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP – 12/05/2023
A roundup of the week’s top property and proptech news stories in partnership with Proptech-X
Net Zero for buildings by 2030 does Amazon have an answer?
In September 2022, the Government published its guidance notes on ‘Net Zero Carbon & Sustainability In construction’ Its main takeaway being,
‘Around 40% of UK carbon emissions are linked to the built environment. This includes emissions linked to heating buildings, the energy they consume to support operations and the operation of transport infrastructure.
Construction activity accounts for around 50m tonnes of CO2 emissions, over half of which is linked to construction product and materials production, particularly materials such as steel and cement, which account for around 15% of global carbon emissions. The construction sector also generates around 60% of waste produced in the UK.
What future now for online agents?
‘By 2020, traditional estate agents will be dead, and online estate agents will sell half of all property in the UK’.
This was the heading for a piece I wrote back in Oct 2017. Given we are at a watershed moment with the fortunes of Purplebricks – we reprint the article in full. Many of the onliners in the original article have ceased trading and others have come and gone or rebranded.
This is a common enough headline (by 2020 traditional agents will be dead) and I thought so too, until I looked at the facts and realised; no online agent is making a profit, many online agents are propped up by large, regular injections of fresh capital, and the mature online estate agency model has no asset base and so no brand value.
Renters Reform statement delayed
Back in August 2022, Michael Gove set out in a whitepaper the need for a ‘fairer private rented sector’ and it was anticipated that tomorrow the 10th of May – his findings would be unvailed, but now the report has been delayed.
The big question is why? Will it be too harsh on landlords or on tenants, or both or neither? And with an election looming which sector does the Government and Mr Gove want to pander to the most.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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