It has been announced that Lloyds Bank has pledged to a lend sum of £1bn to assist in the incentivisation for developers to incorporate further green credentials across their projects. The loans, which are to be issued directly to property owners, are to be become anywhere up to 20bps cheaper
Jackson-Stops & Staff, one of the UK’s leading estate agents, has released new information that suggestions as to the reform of stamp duty on second homes, may actually fail to achieve the goal of putting off buy-to-let investors. The information, in effect shows that inflation in housing prices may actually
Financial services multinational Legal & General (L&G) announced last month that it plans to move into the flat pack houses market. The company, known for its insurance and investment services, plans to build thousands of prefabricated homes every year in the UK. The company is one of several large brands
It has been announced that Lloyds Bank has pledged to a lend sum of £1bn to assist in the incentivisation for developers to incorporate further green credentials across their projects. The loans, which are to be issued directly to property owners, are to be become anywhere up to 20bps cheaper after key environmental improvements have been made to the buildings. The minimum size for tickets has been stated to sit at £10m, which will primarily be seen to support refurbishment projects, where there are shorter lead times present and the benefits can be seen as developers fulfil pre-defined green criteria for credentials. As for the remaining loans, these are to be offered on a similar basis to those traditionally offered by Lloyds, with terms of three to five years being considered. Of course, a key benefit for developers sits within the simple fact that the loans provided by Lloyds will feed directly into projects which can, firstly increase the value of properties, yet also allow for improved operational standards from an environmental perspective. As such, it is hoped that developers will see the combination of these benefits and appreciate the offer of support from Lloyds in allowing them to undertake such projects at greater affordability to themselves. On estimate, it has been predicted by Lloyds that the plan could see reductions of circa 110,000 tonnes of carbon emissions – this figure sitting in line with the approximated energy use of greater than 22,000 homes. And of course, with the development of further homes and infrastructure being a keen focus for developers and the government alike, plans such as these to minimise the increased carbon footprint of doing so are integral to our future. Lloyds’ Global Head of Commercial Real Estate, John Feeney highlighted the goals of Lloyds with regard to increased incentivisation for organisations to shape up their assets into an efficient state. He added: “More often than not that is going to be those assets that are reasonable well performing and where investment in reasonably easy wins could get to a much more efficient place.”
Jackson-Stops & Staff, one of the UK’s leading estate agents, has released new information that suggestions as to the reform of stamp duty on second homes, may actually fail to achieve the goal of putting off buy-to-let investors. The information, in effect shows that inflation in housing prices may actually offset the reform changes, and that the 3% surcharge placed on second homes may not yet be enough to actually deter potential investors from seeing buy-to-let investments as optimistic. And while it has been declared that there has been a surge in registrations made for buy-to-let properties up to April, it has also been highlighted that the majority of these investors will see greater returns from the inflation of property prices in the modern recovering housing market (potentially in under a year), thus positioning the 3% surcharge as nothing more than an inconvenience. In fact, Jackson-Stops & Staff has warned that those most affected by the surcharge will actually be tenants who will suffer from increased rental prices as reported previously. This, in effect, will likely deteriorate the market conditions for those looking to break onto the rental market as already previously highlighted, with landlords still seeing optimistic market conditions for at least some time. As explained by Jackson-Stops & Staff’s Chairman, Nick Leeming, the government’s attempts to even the playing field for property investors and first-time buyers, the situations does nothing to remove the spotlight which landlords should be seeing on investments into property as one of the most solid investments to this day. He added: “The idea that stamp duty tax will act as a deterrent is a fiction, as for most landlords it won’t amount to a significant figure.” Of course, with the impacts, once again, hitting the tenants of properties as opposed to the pockets of landlords, the growing debate on the depreciated affordability of rental housing stock is of even greater note. The question, however, is as to whether the government can find an alternative way to dissolve interest in buy-to-let investment in a way which won’t come down on the tenant.
Financial services multinational Legal & General (L&G) announced last month that it plans to move into the flat pack houses market. The company, known for its insurance and investment services, plans to build thousands of prefabricated homes every year in the UK. The company is one of several large brands to make a move into the flat pack home market in response to the growing shortage of houses across the UK. In 2012, Ikea announced the Aktiv — its $86,000 flat pack house built in partnership with Oregon architectural firm Ideabox. L&G’s homes will be built through a company called L&G Homes at a factory in North Yorkshire, according to the Financial Times. The insurance giant also owns a 46.5% share of home builder CALA Homes, which purchased competitor Banner Homes in 2014 in an estimated £200m deal. The homes will be constructed in North Yorkshire and transported to sites across the country as part of the company’s operations. The flat pack construction and transportation process leads to significant savings compared to traditional construction, reducing costs for home buyers. Flat pack houses are viewed by many in the construction and housing industries as a practical way to increase the number of new homes built throughout the UK, after Minister of State for Housing Brandon Lewis announced an ambitious target of one million new homes by 2020. They’ve also attracted the attention of open source enthusiasts and technology evangelists. An open source building system called WikiHouse, launched in 2011 in South Korea, offers digital plans for flat pack houses to be shared online using the Creative Commons license. Real estate industry analysts believe that L&G’s entry into the flat pack homes market could be a trigger for other companies to make similar decisions, particularly as home builders ramp up their efforts to build throughout the UK.