Moda Living is the UK’s fastest growing rental brand, with over £1bn of construction on site across the UK, and a growing pipeline of over 8,000 homes from Edinburgh to Brighton. Moda has already changed the rules of renting with innovative Next Generation Neighbourhoods, offering no deposit, no fees, and a whole lifestyle for the cost of your rent, and now Moda, in partnership with Part W is on a mission to encourage the next generation of ambitious young women to choose the property, design and construction sector for their long-term careers.   Part W is an action group of engaged and proactive women working in architecture and design, planning, engineering, policy, infrastructure, construction, operations, and sustainability. The group is campaigning for gender parity across the built environment.   Founded by architect Zoë Berman in 2018, the intergenerational collective is formed of women from diverse backgrounds who are working together to call time on gender inequality, in all its forms, in our built environment.   The group is Co-Chaired by architect Alice Brownfield. Core members include Dr. Harriet Harriss, Hilary Satchwell, Kelly Clark, Sarah Castle, Sarah Wigglesworth, Yẹmí Àlàdérun, Sarah Ackland, Nadine Adamski, Christine Murray and Fiona MacDonald, who work in the areas of architecture, design education, planning, place making, project management and sustainable transport. It is supported by volunteers and professional friends, and most recently Lydia Eustace, Director at Moda Living.   Park W and Moda call for action across the built environment sector to address the systemic gender equity challenges that exist in the sphere and ask others to join them in supporting Part W and other organisations who are working to shift the dial in favour of a more inclusive industry, so it can be changed for future generations of young women.  The partnership will launch with a bold, engaging mini film outlining the spectrum of careers across the built environment sector, accessible for 16 to 24 year-olds across social media channels including Twitter, Instagram and TikTok as well as being shared amongst student influencers and disseminated to design colleges, schools, colleges,and universities.    Phase two of the outreach programme will include digital Q+A sessions spanning the UK with leading representatives from across the property, design and construction sectors covering (but not limited to) construction, design, architecture, planning and operations. Not only will successful female and males contributors be speaking about their own career highs and lows, but they will be sharing lessons learnt and answering questions from the audience – with a focus on positively equality and diversity in the industry. There will also be an opportunity to promote jobs and apprenticeships and make a next generation of diverse young people feel welcome in the industry.   

Commuters looking to relocate from London and other major cities could be considering Nottingham as a go-to location due to its low house prices and good travel links, according to property experts. From its central location in the country and extensive transport links, to its two universities, rich history and burgeoning riverside communities, Nottingham could be one of the most desirable hot spots for home buying, with the average house price in the city now £210,977*. In recent years, the city has seen an influx in London dwellers relocating from the capital, and with the COVID-19 pandemic and the major shift to working from home, the trend of moving away from London has accelerated, with many companies giving up office overheads altogether – a change which has led to London workers having less reason to pay bigger price tags for properties in the capital, prompting a desire to live in more affordable areas. The increase in people moving from London to Nottingham was first highlighted back in 2018, when ONS data showed that there had been an increase in Londoners migrating to the city, in a movement which marked the first of its kind in five years. Many local experts including the chief executive of Invest in Nottingham put the influx of people from the capital down to the city’s attractive affordable house prices and lower cost of living**, and property experts at FHP Living have seen a 23% increase in enquiries from prospective buyers interested in moving from London to Nottingham this year. According to new research from Totaljobs, which includes a combined analysis of ONS data*, COVID-19 has accelerated the trend of migration from the UK capital, with as many as 1.6m Londoners (26%) working outside of the city during lockdown. The research revealed that the number of workers moving away from London has been increasing in recent years – and showed that for every nine adults moving to the capital, 10 were moving out. Research carried out by PwC also suggests that London’s population could fall this year, which would be the first time the capital has seen a decrease this century. In its latest UK Economic Outlook report, the professional services firm highlights how many workers chose to leave London during the first UK lockdown to live with family members, and have since decided to make the move more permanent. The report also cites a survey conducted by the London Assembly in August last year, in which 4.5% of the 450 Londoners polled – the equivalent of 416,000 city residents of the total population – said that they would move out of the capital within the next twelve months*. Nottingham has exceptional green credentials, with city council plans working towards becoming the first carbon neutral city in the country by 2028, and with East Midlands Airport in close proximity and dozens of trains each day to London – the quickest being just one hour 32 minutes, the city provides an excellent location to commute to the capital when needed, as well as other cities to the north and south. Attractions in and around the city are plentiful – with The Peak District, Sherwood Forest and Attenborough Nature Reserve all within easy reach, as well as the world-class Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, Holme Pierrepont Country Park and The National Water Sports Centre located close to the River Trent. Nottingham’s riverside area is currently undergoing an extensive regeneration, with several residential developments along the banks of the river under construction – including The Yacht Club; an 81-home, £25million waterfront development situated at the end of Trent Lane, Trent Bridge Quays; a 92-home riverside scheme, which is in the early stages of construction on Meadow Lane and The Waterside Apartments; a recently complete £30m development – offering panoramic views over the River Trent, the city, Trent Bridge Cricket Ground and West Bridgford.

Leading London property services group Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward (KFH) has been appointed by an EQT Real Estate and Sigma Capital Group joint venture to let and manage assets across the joint venture’s expanding Greater London portfolio. KFH will be working closely with Sigma, the joint venture company’s asset manager. Sigma, the UK PRS, residential development and urban regeneration specialist, announced the joint venture with EQT Real Estate, the real estate platform of global investment organisation EQT, at the end of September 2020. The joint venture company was formed to deliver an initial portfolio of around 3,000 new homes for rent in London over the next five years with a value in excess of £1bn. The portfolio will deliver high quality, build-to-rent apartment blocks in more affordable parts of Greater London, predominantly in TfL Zones 3-6. KFH, which currently oversees a £12bn portfolio of 30,000 residential units across London, will be managing assets within the joint venture company’s portfolio under its Simple Life London brand, an extension of Sigma’s existing Simple Life build-to-rent management operation, comprising over 3,000 homes in the UK regions. Commenting on the appointment, Paul Masters, Group Operations Director at KFH, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to lease up and manage assets within this portfolio under the Simple Life London brand, working with EQT Real Estate and Sigma’s exciting joint venture company to establish their presence in the Capital. During the last six months, we have built a close working relationship with the Sigma team in preparation for the imminent first releases in East London. This appointment reinforces our position as the essential partner to help deliver build-to-rent solutions to best in class owners in the London market.” Rob Sumner, Residential Investment Director at Sigma, said: “We are very pleased to appoint KFH in readiness for the launch of our first new rental homes in London under our joint venture with EQT Real Estate.   “KFH has established an excellent reputation in the private rental property market in London and their values of exceptional customer service align with ours. We look forward to the launch of our first completed apartments in East London and to welcoming our first Simple Life London residents before the end of April.”

CEO of Checkatrade, Mike Fairman, said, “Our tradespeople have shown great resilience over this challenging period and are committed to safely carrying out home improvement and repair jobs following Government guidelines. Checkatrade has worked directly with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to share additional guidance for trade members and homeowners to help everyone stay as safe as possible. For example, we encourage our tradespeople to use video calls for advice and quotes, and recommend you keep in touch with your tradesperson to talk through the work in advance and agree how to reduce risks. “As we continue to spend more time at home, homeowners will be wanting to also invest time and money into making them as comfortable as they can be and as a result, we’re seeing uplifts in searches for tradespeople to carry out home improvements in the winter months bucking the trend of previous years.” The measures that homeowners are encouraged to undertake when carrying out home improvements and maintenance work include: ·        Keep in touch: Regular contact with your tradesperson in advance of any home visit is important – to talk through details of the work and to agree how risks can be reduced ·        Keep it digital: Checkatrade is encouraging tradespeople to embrace video calling for advice and quotes, whenever that is possible ·        Keep it clean: Clean surfaces around the working area and in ‘high traffic’ areas such as door handles with disinfectant before, during and after work is carried out ·        Keep a distance: Avoid too much face-to-face contact with those working in your home and keep children or pets in other rooms whenever possible

A digital property management platform which promises to simplify property management transactions for buy-to-let landlords, tenants and trades will soon launch an equity campaign on Crowdcube, the leading crowdfunding platform in the UK. Clooper has been developed to bring property transactions into the 21st century and offers a multi-faceted platform connecting landlords, tenants, trades and homeowners to facilitate transactions. The platform will bring benefits to tradespeople who will be able to use the app to connect with landlords and tenants and view and quote for upcoming maintenance and building projects, as well as manage their appointments. The app will streamline all projects, creating jobs alerts and even preparing proposals. Payment requests will also be sent via the app and landlords then also pay via the app. Landlords will be able to share tradespeoples’ details with tenants who can rate their work once it’s complete. Speaking about the upcoming Crowdcube funding launch, founder of Clooper, Toks Adebiyi said, “We are really excited to be bringing Clooper to market. We look to create customer value in everything that we do and we know that the platform will make a huge difference and improve the experience of landlords and tenants whilst bringing fantastic opportunities for tradespeople. It’s a win win all round.” The platform, Clooper, has already received a significant investment from leading property entrepreneur, Paul Rothwell of Empire Property. Rothwell has over a decade of experience in the build to let market and knowledge of the financial investment having raised over £35m through mini bonds. To register your interest on getting exclusive first access to the Clooper Crowdcube funding campaign, please sign up here. Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital. Please Invest Aware.

A property maintenance company is celebrating the academic success of its only female service manager.  Stacey Bowling, who works at Platform Property Care – a subsidiary of one of the UK’s largest social landlords, Platform Housing Group – has recently passed an HNC in Construction with flying colours.  Stacey – who manages the organisation’s unoccupied properties in both Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, began her career in social housing 12 years ago at the age of 17.  She explained: “Working in social housing has been the best career decision I could have made.  To begin with the jobs I worked in provided back office support within Repairs and Maintenance; I was keen to develop my skills however and ultimately move into a more technical role.  As I had no specialist trade experience or qualifications I thought my options would be extremely limited; I couldn’t have been further from the truth!”  All employees at Platform Property Care receive a career development plan with the chance to gain formal qualifications.  Stacey has been supported in her studies – including an NVQ Level 3 in Management, a BTEC Level 3 in Workforce Development and a Level 2 Certificate in Contracts Law – culminating in a BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Construction and the Built Environment, giving her an indepth knowledge of subjects including construction technology and surveying.  Stacey is now studying for an NVQ Level 4 in Construction Site Supervision.  Malcolm  Kaszics, Assistant Director of Property Management and Growth at Platform Property Care said : “We are so proud of Stacey; her success is testimony to her hard work and dedication.  Interestingly, women make up a mere 11 per cent of the construction workforce in the UK and just 1 per cent of workers on site; indeed, the proportion of those with specialist skills such as roofers, bricklayers and glaziers are so low they are practically unmeasurable. However, here at Platform Property Care we strongly feel that the role of women in construction is critical for equality, fairness, parity and impartially within the construction sector.   Congratulations to Stacey and we look forward to her continuing career success.”  Stacey concluded : “I am proud to work for Platform Property Care and hope my contribution will help us to achieve our aims as a social housing provider.  I have never felt that my gender or age has held me back and I am passionate about women developing careers in what are seen as traditional male roles.  My aim is to continue to learn and improve every day and be part of something that really does change lives.”  Platform Property Care continues to grow and has ambitious plans to deliver the majority of its maintenance and compliance activities to all its customers and joint venture partners.   For further information please contact Stacey Bowling, Service Manager, Platform Property Care on 0121 788 7804 or email her at stacey.bowling@platformhg.com.