SLKproperty

What is ‘co-living’? Isn’t it just a fancy new name for HMOs?

What is ‘co-living’? Isn’t it just a fancy new name for HMOs?

SLK-News

I read this comprehensive and balanced article a while ago but revisited it today. I thought it would provide a really good introduction for anyone who isn’t really sure what ‘co-living’ is and why it could be worth their investment.

Co-living: the end of urban loneliness – or cynical corporate dorms?

In the industrial chic lobby of the Collective, a huge apartment block in the northwest London neighbourhood of Willesden Junction, a set of posters advertise its events series for residents. There’s a crystal-pendant-making workshop, a talk on the politics of body hair and another on mental health awareness.

The article even clearly defines the difference between ‘co-living’ and ‘co-housing’ together with both positive and negative opinion from current and former residents of both types of development.

The balance is good, exploring the pros and cons, and discussing whether co-living is really just a way for developers to squeeze the living space and cram as many people as possible into their developments.

My one big take home from it though is the social aspect. I firmly believe the current drive for larger developments, ostensibly to achieve required economies of scale, actually destroys the social cohesion that is the principle desire of a large proportion of the target residents.

I believe these large scale schemes actually reduce the social cohesion and provide greater opportunity for conflict. After all, we know the optimum size for an HMO is 6 people and that co-living works best from a social perspective with 6-12 people sharing resources.

My personal vision for getting those scale economies is to have a large number of smaller units, sharing resources and facilities across sites. Each ‘unit’ works on its own but gains by sharing across a network of local and national resources.

Read this article with that goal in mind and if the idea of developing co-living units interlinked across sites has any resonance, get in touch!

“Top 20 areas of North Yorkshire’s rental market revealed” – not all it seems?

“Top 20 areas of North Yorkshire’s rental market revealed” – not all it seems?

SLK-News

I received the following “Top 20 areas of North Yorkshire’s rental market revealed” through LinkedIn today and I was keen to see the report.

It’s only short and when I’d finished I wasn’t sure what I’d learnt, if anything. Then a closer look revealed … nothing!

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/top-20-areas-of-north-yorkshires-rental-market-revealed.html

After the introductory fluff, the first pertinent table allegedly shows the comparative ‘size’ of the rental markets in towns and cities. It shows Middlesbrough (spelling it incorrectly with an extra ‘o’ by the way) as by far the largest ‘market’, quoting it as 35% of the total North Yorkshire market, with Richmond at 25%, York at 17% and Harrogate at 7.2%. Wow! Interesting.

Hang on! Richmond at 25%?! Richmond has a population of 8,500? Even the whole of Richmondshire is only 53,000 (North Yorkshire has a population of about 1.3m) how can it be 25% of the market?

I look again … the statistics are an “analysis of rental prices (in advertised rents) for homes to let”. Which means these are rental asking prices – for rentals that have not yet let. So really it does not show the size of the rental market at all, it more accurately describes what is NOT renting! Therefore on this data scrape you might be better assuming that Middlesbrough is critically over-supplied and be looking at the lower percentages where there isn’t such a high surplus on the market. No?

No. This data has absolutely no meaning at all – the size of the location is not considered – a low percentage location might still be over-supplied using this data. I can’t actually work out what this data is telling me. Certainly not quickly, which is what data is supposed to do.

What about the next table ‘Top5 rental markets … on rent’?

1. Richmond: £1798 pcm
2. York: £1395 pcm
3. Harrogate: £823 pcm
4. Scarborough: £477 pcm
5. Middlesborough: £425 pcm

In my humble opinion, similarly useless. So Middlesbrough, although substantially highest in the ‘market size’ rank of the first table, is 5th with a rental figure less than a quarter of Richmond. I can sort of extrapolate from the two sets of figures that Middlesbrough has a lot more properties available at much lower rents than Richmond. But now I’m trying to guess what’s going on with Richmond, commanding such high rents – perhaps there are a significant number of very large, rural houses which are not letting and skewing the data.

What data? It’s a mess. Does any of this inform investment decisions or help me define the best rental markets in the region? Emphatically not. Useless. A waste of my time reading and trying to understand this ‘report’ and of the agent’s time in originally producing it. I suppose at least I got a blog post out of it – but not the positive kind of post the originator of the ‘report’ was looking for.

Goldsmith Street

Streets create community – we’re proposing one!

SLK-News

In a potentially landmark decision, the Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building was awarded to the Goldsmith Street social housing development in Norwich.

Not only is it the first time the award has been given to social housing, it marks a significant change in focus for the jury. Last year’s award went to the £1.3bn Bloomberg headquarters for being the most sustainable office building ever conceived – despite importing 600 tonnes of Bronze from Japan and granite from India.

Streets make communities. Have architects realised at last? | Simon Jenkins

Wonders never cease. The Royal Institute of British Architects has just given a prize to a street. Not to a vainglorious skyscraper, or an “iconic” bunker museum or a luxury pad in a field, but a living, breathing street. This street is not just a street but a “council street”.

The hope has to be that this award will help shape the direction of housing provision to come. The design is led strongly by social efficacy as well as environmental efficiency. Houses have doorways facing each other, encouraging social interaction, there are communal as well as private play areas and social spaces, and at the front, the design of the street has cars very much secondary to prioritising the movement and interaction of people.

When I’ve seen the new residents interviewed on the news, the response has been overwhelmingly very positive – many people just couldn’t see themselves ever moving out. Now that is an enviable level of satisfaction. Let’s have lots more.

Now – in a personal postscript to this – I have long been espousing the value of great social design in co-living spaces but actually, we have a potential project which we’re looking to bring to fruition next year, in which we had already identified the great value in creating a ‘street’ feeling for a group of holiday cottages and serviced accommodation apartments. Although the ‘street’ will always remain a right of way, the majority of the time vehicles will not be allowed anywhere. We want to encourage the feeling of ‘ownership’ of that area, by the people who are staying there, enabling parents to comfortably allow their children to play with each other outside.

This project is incredibly ambitious and we hope to be able to let you begin to see into it very soon. Fingers crossed!

Co-working

Fretting? We Work’s travails may offer an opportunity

SLK-News

It appears WeWork has expanded too fast, too far and wide, and too thinly. Whereas the product models, of both WeWork and WeLive, are most definitely finding favour with consumers, the financing model is becoming ‘problematic’.

Why WeWork’s problems have London landlords fretting

At the UK headquarters of office space company WeWork, the skateboard half-pipe is empty, the arcade machines aren’t in use and the DJ turntables are motionless. It could be because it’s 11am on a grey weekday in London, or it could be because this fast-growing company has suddenly found itself in crisis mode.

WeWork has pulled their much vaunted flotation amid signs their expansion has been overly aggressive. With the back-loaded nature of the agreements they have signed, there are rumours WeWork will run out of cash in 2020 unless one of their major backers provides more working capital. Of course, additional funds cannot be ruled out, and are probably likely, but when a flotation at around $47bn is pulled, with the share price receding so the company valuation is now closer to $10bn, some ‘restructuring’ looks inevitable.

WeWork is undoubtedly the most significant driver in this market but perhaps their short term problems open a window of opportunity for others to follow an adapted model. Their co-working product works well. Their co-living product is less well tested. Opportunities abound for agile entrants to hone the commercial model, using the best of the proven product strategies with a more secure financing structure. It feels like there is a significant opportunity, right now, to catch up and nip at their heels.

Ecotourism in the Dales

Innovative eco-business shows best of Nidderdale

SLK-News

A few days ago I stumbled on this lovely article about an imaginative business located in the North Yorkshire, which encourages visitors to the Yorkshire Dales to explore the wonderful countryside in ‘green’, electric campervans.

Exploring the Yorkshire Dales by electric campervan

‘It’s a bit like a Super Mario Kart,” the owner Kit had joked. And halfway up a steep hill, I got my chance to prove it. Flicking the thrilling “turbo” switch on the dashboard, I rocketed skyward. Well, perhaps not quite skyward, but what is claimed to be the world’s only all-electric classic VW campervan for hire made easy work of it.

The article goes on to describe a number of the beautiful locations, places to visit and ‘things to do’. It is a welcome expounding of the virtues of the Yorkshire countryside and the positive benefit to well-being.

Of course, one can never be sure whether a business like this has real legs but the enthusiasm, imagination and (to use a great Northern term) sheer gumption is genuinely admirable – we can only wish them the best of luck in this ambitious endeavour.

Thinking and living outside the box(es)

Thinking and living outside the box(es)

SLK-News

During our journey through life we experience many boxes; the box we live in, the box we learn in, the box we travel in. And then there’s the box we think in.

Society generally dictates we accept the way things are – it has always been that way, therefore it will always be that way. But inside, we know in our gut, there is a better way.

Car-free school planned for Leeds

A school being planned in Leeds will be among the first to be designed as car-free. It will form part of a multi-generational building that includes a care home for older people. The developers hope many children will walk to the 420-place primary school, which will have no parking spaces for staff or visitors and will discourage drop-offs.

This article is extraordinary. It brings together so many aspects of what I believe about Property and the way we use it as different societies. It must be true that there is no set way for everyone to live but there are many different ways.

The trick for an investor in property is to spot the opportunities from lifestyle changes. The closer you watch society, watch the changing, developing needs and developing importance of those needs, then there is your developing niche.

And niche can often become mainstream. That is the goal. Make the product so good for society, so apt to the times it becomes so desirable that everyone in your target market aspires to it. Then expand the options to expand the market reach.

Except for it getting me thinking, none of the above says anything much about the article to which I linked! I suppose is right and proper … I’ll just let the professional journalist express some of my shared vision for the co-living environments of the near future.

Positive outlook for HMOs from Precise Mortgages

Positive outlook for HMOs from Precise Mortgages

SLK-News

I found this interesting article the other day. It’s refreshing to see a positive attitude expressed on HMO lending.

Of course in reality, there are still lots of hoops to jump through, perhaps more, but the products do offer more options. Top slicing for one.

In the Reporter article they quote ‘high than average’ rental yields of 6.3% for HMOs, compared to market average 5.0%. You have to assume those are ‘net’ figures – I mean, I’m not settling for that gross!

For me though, there’s one negative criterion – maximum 8 bedrooms. I’m looking at a co-living product that should perform best with projects averaging 10 to 12 rooms. However, if I find an <8 that works, I’ll be looking seriously again at these financial options!

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/finance/further-growth-predicted-for-hmo-sector.html

HMO and Limited Company

Here at Precise Mortgages we’re proud to help landlords with complex lending needs as well as those who have been underserved by high street lenders. Whatever their circumstances we have a broad range of specialist lending solutions. Click here to view our Buy to Let Mortgage submission guide.

Co-living for the older generations

Can co-living help with the impending crisis for older renters?

SLK-News

An all-party parliamentary group on housing and care for older people has released a report warning of an impending crisis in renting for older generations.

According to chair, Richard Best, “The number of households headed by someone over 64 will treble over the next 25-30 years … unless at least 21,000 suitable homes are built a year there will be nowhere affordable for them to live.”

UK’s renting millennials face homelessness crisis when they retire

More than 600,000 members of so-called ‘Generation Rent’ are facing an “inevitable catastrophe” of homelessness when they retire, according to the first government inquiry into what will happen to millennials in the UK who have been unable to get on the housing ladder as they age. People’s incomes typically halve after retirement.

Since we all know that the general population is living longer it seems obvious that specific strategies need to be enacted to deal with the changing demographic. Whether this is led by Government intervention, or is simply entrusted to the Private Rented Sector is the current question at hand.

At SLK we are acutely aware of the changing needs and have been looking at opportunities within rental housing for the older demographic. In this sector, as big fans of co-living, there appears to be an increasingly viable (and valuable) niche opportunity in creating high quality ‘shared housing’ products aimed specifically at older rather than younger generations.

There are so many benefits to co-living it feels like a ‘no-brainer’ to formulate rental products for that ‘post family home’ age, which deliver comfortable, sociable, caring living environments. It is an area we are passionate to explore with like minded partners.

Solar Roof

HMRC to raise VAT to 20% on solar battery systems – EU to blame?

SLK-News

HMRC today pushed for legislation to raise VAT from 5% to 20% on solar battery systems. Why? Apparently because the EU ruled that reduced VAT rates amount to a state subsidy, which is not allowed. Hence the UK needs to get in line.

HMRC pushes steep VAT increase for new solar-battery systems

Treasury proposes rise from 5% to 20%, while the tax on coal will stay at lower rate

I’m generally pro EU but here is an example where its behaviour is wrong, for numerous reasons but not least for slowing the rate of uptake. Strikes me that a stand could be made on matters like these, if the Government had the balls to challenge the EU.

For property people and home DIYers there is an important caveat to be aware of. The 20% rate applies to HARDWARE ONLY, installation charges should continue to be charged at 5% VAT.

Halt the solar and storage VAT hike

This hike is certain to hit innovation and investment in the UK’s growing solar and battery storage market. Not to mention the vital progress on decarbonising heat, which according to the Spring Statement is a strong focus for this government. There could not be a more contradictory step following the declaration of a climate emergency by parliament.

As with all these things there is, of course, a petition to lobby and apply pressure not to bring in the raise. This one courtesy of 38Degrees. I have signed for all it may be worth – better to do a little something than nothing though, right?

Coworking

The one that got away. Lessons to be learned?

SLK-News
Coworking

As we all know, deals ‘fall out of bed’ all the time. The co-working project is just another one, having fallen through today.

Although, this one is a bit unusual as the reason it will not be going ahead is that the prospective landlord / vendor signed up another party to their site without any indication.

We had conducted a little over 2 months of due diligence, specifying our product, the scope of works required, JV partner relations, etc. including 3 site visits and then conducting competitor and market research.

So are there any lessons to learn from this? From a due diligence point of view, no. We had to do what we had to do. Perhaps we could have been a little quicker but then we needed to make absolutely sure of our project parameters given it was a new partnership and a new business.

From the point of view of conversations with the landlord / vendor, yes, we could have done differently and better.

We always consider good communication as essential in everything we do and perhaps, on this occasion, we didn’t maintain frequency of contact. Having arranged a meeting to finalise contracts just under 3 weeks into the future, we didn’t want to hassle the other party so assumed, and then found after 2 weeks the bomb was dropped. Perhaps a friendly weekly call may have prevented this from happening. We can’t know but we won’t be making any more assumptions in the future – so the lesson? – keep checking in regularly with the other party.