tado° launches Professional range at PHEX Published: 05 October, 2016 Today at PHEX, tado° announced its new dedicated product range for installers – tado° Professional. tado° Professional is a portfolio of smart heating products, including the Smart Thermostat and Smart Radiator Thermostats, that enables installers to provide remote boiler maintenance
Brexit vote gives boost to North East homes North East house prices have enjoyed a Brexit boost, performing strongly in the run-up to and aftermath of the referendum over the UK’s EU membership. Research from North East sales and lettings firm KIS reveals property prices in the region rose 4.8%
©Getty Back to work: the Colombo Port City Project was temporarily suspended in 2015 Over the past two decades, China’s construction companies have built more infrastructure more quickly than ever before. Now, spurred by the world’s most powerful development finance institutions, they are looking overseas to stage their second act.
Now that the outcome of the referendum is known, we must focus on the future for our sector. It’s important to remember that, despite the recent turmoil, the legal situation today is still the same as the legal situation yesterday. Source link
The Grade II listed property dates back to the 17th Century and was formerly a private residence. It sits within 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of country gardens and now features 36 contemporary bedrooms, an AA Rosette restaurant and wedding and conference facilities for up to 300 guests. The Quorn Hotel
EUA calls on new London Mayor to make energy efficiency a priority Published: 09 May, 2016 Following his election to London Mayor on 5 May, the Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA) is asking Sadiq Khan Make to put energy efficiency at the heart of his policy for London. “An effective
A Construction Safety Campaign has been launched in order to try and reduce the number of accidents that take place when the clocks go back. It is thought that the number of accidents reported increases by as much as 30% when the clocks go back, as darker mornings and evenings
Crosslane Student Developments, part of the Crosslane Group, has submitted a revised planning application for a sensitively-designed, purpose-built student accommodation development scheme on Harper Road, Coventry, which currently has planning consent for student housing. The design comprises a U-shaped building that wraps around a courtyard. Under the revised plans, the
Part of Crosslane Group, Crosslane Student Development first entered the market in Edinburgh in 2011 by successfully advising on the purchase of Meadow Court, which is a 148 bed student accommodation property that is located in Sciennes, Edinburgh. After this Prime Student Living, a student accommodation lettings and operational management
After the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Theresa May announced that she is fully committed to supporting the UK housing Industry and ensuring that they government will get back into creating more houses. The Prime Minister has announced her commitment to reignite home ownership and the Government will be finding
tado° launches Professional range at PHEX Published: 05 October, 2016 Today at PHEX, tado° announced its new dedicated product range for installers – tado° Professional. tado° Professional is a portfolio of smart heating products, including the Smart Thermostat and Smart Radiator Thermostats, that enables installers to provide remote boiler maintenance to strengthen their customer relationships and improve services. tado° alerts installers when something is wrong with their customer’s boiler. If the consumer has given the remote maintenance approval, installers have the ability to view error codes and other operating data, such as water pressure, burner status, flow temperatures and the pump activity of all their customers in the tado° Professional application. tado° is compatible with any boiler manufacturing brand and wiring plan. These include 230V interfaces for combi boilers, S and Y plans and also low voltage BUS interfaces such as OpenTherm, Vaillant eBus or Worcester HT & EMS Bus. Multi-zone room control for consumers can be realised by extending the setup with multiple tado° Smart Thermostats or tado° Smart Radiator Thermostats for each zone. tado° products also integrate with platforms such as Apple HomeKit, Amazon Echo and O2 Home to enable maximum comfort and convenience for users, while future-proofing homes in the years to come. Source link
Brexit vote gives boost to North East homes North East house prices have enjoyed a Brexit boost, performing strongly in the run-up to and aftermath of the referendum over the UK’s EU membership. Research from North East sales and lettings firm KIS reveals property prices in the region rose 4.8% over the past four weeks, adding £8604 to the value of the typical home. The rise follows a rise of 0.4% recorded in May and means that house prices across the region are now positive over the course of 2016, having fallen by 3.1% in January and 4% in April. The average North East house is now valued at £165,039 with prices 6.5% higher than those recorded in June 2015. House values grew in every single one of the twenty areas surveyed, with rises ranging from 0.7% in Gateshead to 9% in Durham City. The strongest areas for growth included Tynemouth (7.6%), North Shields (7.5%) and Killingworth (7.2%) The former is named this month’s “Best to Buy” due to its year-on-year capital appreciation of 12.5%, the region’s highest. Other strong performers over the past 12 months are North Shields and Houghton-le-Spring (+10.8%). Prices in Jarrow have fallen 0.8% in the same period. The average North East rent rose £10 per calendar month to £580pcm in June – a rise of rise of 1.7%. Rents in the region are now £28 a month dearer than March and have grown by 4% year on year, rising from £565 in May 2015. The rising property prices mean the average North East rental yield falls back 0.1% to 4.3% – still up 0.3% above levels recorded at the end of the last financial quarter. Property Expert Ajay Jagota is founder and Managing Director of North-East based sales and lettings firm KIS and creator of D-lighted, a deposit replacement insurance for private renters. He said: “If you listened to the way some people have been banging on in the media you’d be forgiven for expecting the Brexit vote to have had an apocalyptic impact on the North East and national housing market. But these figures prove just how wrong they were, and to me that’s no surprise at all. “I don’t believe there is a financial crisis around the corner and never have. Of course we saw some pretty unprecedented market volatility in the aftermath of the Brexit vote itself, but thankfully the markets have now calmed down and my prediction is from herein we can expect to see not just continuing growth but the region’s largest gains for some time. “Buyers and sellers traditionally put off big decisions when there is electoral uncertainty and that’s bound to have happened in recent months. But we still saw prices rising by more than seven percent in places like Tynemouth, North Shields and Killingworth. Imagine what’s possible now that uncertainty is over. “Of course we need to be aware of the impact a financial crisis could have on the regional housing market, unlikely as it looks to me. North East house prices only returned to their pre-financial crisis levels in 2014. But rising rents and stable returns are likely to have been a driving force behind this month’s growth, with anecdotal evidence continuing to suggest that the region is continuing to emerge as a destination of choice for national property investors. “If this is the case, the region’s property prices would be more insulated from any financial shocks than last time around, even in the unlikely event they even existed.” Source link
©Getty Back to work: the Colombo Port City Project was temporarily suspended in 2015 Over the past two decades, China’s construction companies have built more infrastructure more quickly than ever before. Now, spurred by the world’s most powerful development finance institutions, they are looking overseas to stage their second act. The China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), which ranked 151st in the 2016 Fortune Global 2000 of leading companies, typifies the global ambitions that are animating the big Chinese builders. More On this story IN Tomorrow’s Global Business “Our ultimate goal is to have 50 per cent of our revenue from overseas,” Fu Junyuan, CCCC’s chief financial officer, told reporters this year. Although he did not give a timescale or say what proportion of current business derives from foreign shores, he did say that the company’s international order book was much more vibrant than its domestic counterpart. Africa was a particular bright spot for CCCC, which employs 112,000 people in 130 countries. At least three projects in Kenya were signed in the first quarter of this year, worth a total Rmb5.4bn ($820m), Mr Fu said. Permission to resume a controversial $1.4bn port city development in Sri Lanka was also obtained in the first quarter of 2016. This same urge to expand abroad is driving the China Railway Group’s attempts ramp up its international business to compensate for softening domestic demand. The China Railway Group plans to boost the share of its revenue that comes from overseas to at least 10 per cent by the end of 2020, up from about 5 per cent last year, according to Li Changjin, chairman of the construction group. The company is working on 405 construction projects in 68 countries. These include the 427km China-Laos railway and the 329km Ethiopian national railway. “The current representation of overseas business is low, but that also means a huge room for improvement,” Mr Li told reporters recently. The 4,400km-long South American Twin Ocean railway project, linking the coasts of Brazil and Peru, ranks as the most ambitious plan so far. The scale of such ambitions might appear absurd were it not for the backing of the world’s most powerful development finance institutions, which often suggest Chinese contractors to carry out the projects to which they lend. We think the Chinese are making moves to expand further into the west and they have a very good chance to take market share – Steven Fisher Two Chinese policy banks — the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China — had outstanding loans to overseas borrowers amounting to an estimated $684bn at the end of 2014, just short of the $700bn owed to all six of the western-backed development institutions put together, according to a study by Boston University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Such largesse is not expected to dissipate as Beijing rolls out its “One Belt, One Road (OBOR)” initiative, a plan to build infrastructure in more than 60 countries between China and Europe, with an estimated investment of about $900bn over the next decade. “There are a lot of additional funds available because the OBOR initiative will accelerate overseas expansion,” says Christoph Nettesheim, senior partner at BCG, a consultancy, in Singapore. “You can see this already, the Chinese construction and construction-equipment companies are very active in OBOR-related areas.” Chinese construction-equipment companies such as Sany, Zoomlion and XCMG are also pursuing ambitious international expansion plans, according to a study by the UBS Evidence Lab, which analysed about 15,000 construction equipment dealerships around the world. The Chinese companies are likely to boost their global market share outside China to about 15 per cent by 2025, up from about 7 per cent currently, according to the analysis. “We think the Chinese are making moves to expand further into the west and we think they have a very good chance to take market share, if they are fully committed to doing so,” says Steven Fisher, UBS analyst. Mr Fisher says the biggest competitive advantage of Chinese companies was a relatively low cost base that allowed them to offer discounts in the region of 15-40 per cent to equivalent premium brand equipment. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link
Now that the outcome of the referendum is known, we must focus on the future for our sector. It’s important to remember that, despite the recent turmoil, the legal situation today is still the same as the legal situation yesterday. Source link
The Grade II listed property dates back to the 17th Century and was formerly a private residence. It sits within 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of country gardens and now features 36 contemporary bedrooms, an AA Rosette restaurant and wedding and conference facilities for up to 300 guests. The Quorn Hotel was the last remaining asset in the Prima portfolio of regional manor house hotels brought to market by Savills in September 2015. The sales of Hellaby Hall Hotel near Rotherham, Stanneylands Hotel in Wilmslow and Nunsmere Hall Hotel in Cheshire have already completed, with this deal bringing the combined total to in excess of £16 million. Ryan Grant of AlixPartners comments: “We are delighted to have concluded the sale of the Quorn Hotel and wish the new owners every success for the future. The expertise and market knowledge shown by Savills has been invaluable to our ability to deliver a successful conclusion to the Prima Group’s administrations.” Martin Rogers, head of UK hotel transactions at Savills, comments: “The Quorn Hotel is the area’s only 4-star offer and has a strong trading record. Its picturesque setting on the banks of the River Soar makes the venue a popular choice for weddings and the new owners will therefore benefit from multiple income streams. We are very pleased to have secured this deal, which completes the sale of the Prima portfolio.” The purchaser was unrepresented. Source link
EUA calls on new London Mayor to make energy efficiency a priority Published: 09 May, 2016 Following his election to London Mayor on 5 May, the Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA) is asking Sadiq Khan Make to put energy efficiency at the heart of his policy for London. “An effective energy efficiency policy will have diverse and far-reaching positive outcomes for many Londoners; from helping to tackle fuel poverty through to helping to improve air quality,” said Isaac Occhipinti, head of external affairs at EUA. The EUA is calling on the Mayor to: Extend the boiler scrappage scheme to include all non-condensing boilers, as currently financial incentives are available to replace G rated boilers. Carbon emissions and household energy bills can be reduced by switching to an efficient boiler. Implement a robust and all-encompassing domestic energy efficiency scheme to reduce energy bills and help improve the health and wellbeing for London residents. A whole house approach to energy efficiency is needed to help reduce carbon emissions in the capital. Incentivise commercial natural gas vehicles, which have lower emissions and lower operating costs than their diesel equivalents. Currently HGVs contribute nearly 75% of NOx emissions in local geographic areas, where the UK is exceeding annual targets.Natural gas as an alternative to diesel, in buses, LGVs and HGVs, will improve air quality by reducing NOx, CO2, and noise emissions, at no additional cost, and they can use the existing high-quality gas pipeline infrastructure. Source link
A Construction Safety Campaign has been launched in order to try and reduce the number of accidents that take place when the clocks go back. It is thought that the number of accidents reported increases by as much as 30% when the clocks go back, as darker mornings and evenings arrive and weather conditions get worse in the winter months. This year the end of daylight saving will take place on 2 am on Sunday 29th October, and the clocks will go back one hour. There are only a few statistics that record the accidents that take place on construction sites after the autumn time change. However, the road casualties that are recorded by the RoSPA and a range of telematics companies demonstrate the potential risks that construction and site workers may face. Every Autumn when the clocks go back, it gets darker earlier in the day, and road casualties rise by as much as 30% between the hours of 5 pm and 8 pm. The month after daylight saving change, road casualties rise by 10% overall. It has also been recorded that during this period, more thefts occur during the darker late afternoons. VPS are working to highlight their Stay Alert, Don’t Get Hurt Daylight Safety Campaign, with 5 simple steps to help reduce risks in the darker working day. Firstly, VPS recommends issuing an alert on Monday October 23rd and Friday 27th October. The alteration in sleeping pattern could have an impact on alertness, so sleeping patterns must be adjusted accordingly. Secondly it is vital that construction companies make sure that their lighting on site is sufficient and install extra lighting if necessary to improve the safety of the site. Next, it is important that improved safety is carried out to deter theft and trespassing as well as ensuring a safety audit for the site. Also, as another safety point, it is important to inspect all fencing on the perimeter of the site and access points thoroughly to watch for and mend weaknesses. Finally, using the Stay Alert, Don’t Get Hurt Safety Campaign poster can offer a reminder to everyone working on the site to change their habits to suite the darker evenings and help to reduce accidents.
Crosslane Student Developments, part of the Crosslane Group, has submitted a revised planning application for a sensitively-designed, purpose-built student accommodation development scheme on Harper Road, Coventry, which currently has planning consent for student housing. The design comprises a U-shaped building that wraps around a courtyard. Under the revised plans, the heights of the proposed roof ridge and eaves will be lowered from the existing permitted design to ensure the new building is in-keeping with the surrounding residential properties. The front of the building is being stepped back from the pavement creating a more open and green environment, along with gardened landscaping within the courtyard. In addition, the ‘living’ sedum rooves will benefit the local environment and the building itself. A reconfiguration of the internal layout of the development will increase the total number of beds from 200 to 266, with the accommodation arranged as en-suite cluster flats rather than the previously proposed combination of cluster flats and self-contained studios. This revised approach encourages shared living and more collaborative learning, which is increasingly what students are looking for, according to research undertaken by Crosslane. The scheme will also include a spacious common room with views onto the River Sherbourne. Located on the former Dairy Crest site on Harper Road in Coventry, the accommodation is a two-minute walk from Coventry University’s main campus and a ten-minute walk from the city centre. Prime Student Living, the student accommodation lettings and operational management arm of Crosslane, will be responsible for achieving full occupancy prior to practical completion. Coventry is home to the fastest growing university by student enrolment in the UK, with 24,600 full time students in the city. Having already achieved planning permission for its Friar Road scheme in Coventry, Crosslane aims to deliver 850 student beds in the city, which will be ready for occupation for the 2019/2020 academic year. These developments will go some way towards satisfying student demand for purpose-built accommodation, as well as helping the university meet its five year growth ambitions. DAY Architectural are the appointed architects for the development. Mike Moran, Development Manager, Crosslane Student Developments, said: “Following the recent successful planning application for the scheme at Friars Road in Coventry, Crosslane is delighted to be investing further in the city and supporting the University’s growth ambitions by building and managing high quality, centrally located student accommodation. Crosslane recently held a very well attended consultation process with the public on the proposed plans which provided opportunity to share the revised design. The revised design is more sympathetic to the surrounding environment and in-keeping with the area’s existing buildings, using highly attractive design features which also have environmental benefits.”
Part of Crosslane Group, Crosslane Student Development first entered the market in Edinburgh in 2011 by successfully advising on the purchase of Meadow Court, which is a 148 bed student accommodation property that is located in Sciennes, Edinburgh. After this Prime Student Living, a student accommodation lettings and operational management arm of the Crosslane Group has been managing Meadow Court with the support of McLaren Property. In August 2017 it was announced that the entire development will undergo a full, high specification refurbishment. Prior to this, Crosslane Student Developments announced that they have completed their work to develop The Old Printworks. The development is in central Edinburgh and has been completed in time to welcome students for the 2017/18 academic year. The construction work has been carried out by the company on behalf of Unite Group. The contractors for the project were Ogilvie Construction. This development has been valued at approximately £31 million and is close to the University of Edinburgh campus. The newly completed accommodation is also close to the historical Royal Mile. Work first started on the project in January 2016, with the topping out ceremony being carried out in March of this year. The Old Printworks has 44 studio apartments and 193 beds in clusters of three to nine bed flats spread out over a five storey development. The students that have let this accommodation will be able to enjoy a range of high specification communal facilities such as a gym, a bike storage space, meeting space and common room as well as laundry facilities. Edinburgh is a popular student city and is home for around 49,000 full time students during term time. The University of Edinburgh is ranked in the top 20 of The Sunday Times and The Guardian league tables. Despite this, there appears to be a significant lack of quality purpose built accommodation to house students in the city. Therefore, Crosslane has been working to create new accommodation to meet the demand.
After the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Theresa May announced that she is fully committed to supporting the UK housing Industry and ensuring that they government will get back into creating more houses. The Prime Minister has announced her commitment to reignite home ownership and the Government will be finding an extra £10 billion to invest in the Help to Buy scheme. The increased investment in this scheme should help a further 135,000 people onto the property ladder. The Managing Director of Millwood Designer Homes, John Elliott has been reflecting on the Government’s plans to boost the Help to Buy Scheme as well as Theresa May’s promise to get more people owning their own homes. John has expressed his delight that Theresa May has backed the construction of more houses. One of the main points in her Party Conference speech was the restoration of hope and improving the current housing market to allow more people the opportunity to buy their own houses. This commitment to improvement is good news for Millwood Designer Homes, a small house building company. It is great to see that the Government will be making a conscious effort to provide the land needed to construct these new houses in order to meet the ambitious targets for new houses that have been set. The Help to Buy initiative is a way to assist home ownership that is supported by Millwood, and is a great way for first time buyers to get their foot on to the property ladder. The extra funding from the initiative has been announced at the right time by the Prime Minister, and has worked to instill more confidence among first time buyers and home builders, as it was thought that the needed subsidy would be becoming to an end. John Elliott feels that the extra boost to the Help to Buy initiative and the presentation of a Government committed to help British homebuilders wherever possible will lead to lead to more stability economically as well as stronger confidence in the UK housing market.
