Along with the improved weather, April saw some encouraging indicators that life some is being breathed back into the new homes market from the unprecedented lows seen over the last two years.
During the first quarter of 2010 a total of 31,038 new homes were registered during the period, up from just 17,859 during the same three months of 2009, according to the National House-Building Council (NHBC).
Private developers led the recovery, with the sector registering a 113 per cent jump in registrations year-on-year to 20,538.
Registrations by public sector builders, such as housing associations, rose by 28 per cent during the same period to 10,500.
A recent appointment to carry out a market appraisal and premises assessment in preparation for the relocation of an IT firm to new Sheffield offices means that invitations are invited for suitable properties. A minimum of 8,000 sq.ft. of high quality office space or space suitable for conversion with planning consent. An existing superfast broadband connection to the property is essential.
The RICS agent survey for October reports that house prices have risen once again.
Despite the plunges in the early part of the year, since the reversal in July 2009 the has been steady growth albeit within a quiet market.
Instructions have risen as vendors return to the market and this steady increase in supply should see the rises kept to modest levels in the near future as the demand and supply move closer together. Once again London sees the biggest gains but the rest of the UK also appears to be gaining confidence as home buyers return.
It seems that the low part of the market was seen around February so anyone making a transaction then can feel pleased with themselves for the time being. For now a mood of cautious optimism seems to be in the air.
Have we seen the worst of the property recession? There is growing evidence to suggest that is the case.
The prime residential market in London is on the rise again, though it is still down on the 2008 peak. Knight Frank are reporting that:
– Prime house prices in central London rose 1.3% in September
– The annual rate of price change has improved to -8.9% (from -12.0% in August)
– Average prices are still 18% below their March 2008 peak
– Price growth in some areas has hit 9% since March this year
In the retail sector Land securities have been providing concessions to their tenants in the last year to help them through the worst property recession in living memory. The traditional quarter rent days have been a contentious tradition for years and retailers never looked forward to finding three months rent in advance. This pushed some retailers like Woolworths over the edge when the quarter day arrived.
Land Securities introduced their Clear Let lease that introduced monthly rent payments in an effort to keep hold of increasingly rare tenants. But they are warning that concessions might become increasingly difficult as they rebuild the value of the portfolio for their investors. A spokesman recently said
“British Land is seeing more demand from new and existing tenants. In a well-functioning market both landlords and tenants will push as hard as they can and try to get as much as possible out of the other before settling somewhere in the middle. It is a question of who has the upper hand, and where there is good demand from tenants and low vacancy rates, landlords do not need to give more.”
Things are changing for both landlord and tenant. Yields are beginning to harden with CBRE reporting that in September prime shopping centres yields saw a 25 point improvement to 6.85%.
Overall, the IPD report that property yields and capital values have been growing since December 2008 and in the last few months rentals have also begun to rise.
It’s clear that with reducing stock (due to almost zero investment in the last 24 months)combined with a more stable retail environment, landlords will find fewer reasons to succumb to tenant demand for hard bargains and concessions.
Today saw Tony Carroll speaking at the Building Business For Our Region event in a windswept and wet Bridlington on the usually glorious Yorkshire coast.
Ven Management’s Target initiative have organised a series of seminars aimed at SME’s in the construction industry and the roomful of delegates that turned out at 9:00am in such miserable weather seemed determined to get something from the event. Hopefully the speakers left them with something to take away and utilise in their business.
Wendy Ashton from Target introduced the day after the obligatory bacon sandwiches.
Nigel Leighton, the Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services at East Riding of Yorkshire Council discussed what motivates his local authority when they are procuring buildings from schools to offices. He was keen to get across the message that they are open to any business as long as fulfil the requirements of quality and protecting public expenditure. The frameworks now coming into play give the council more surety that they are partnering with and employing the right people for the job.
Wendy Ashton took the podium again to outline what Target is all about and how they were set up to bring together firms in the construction sector and provide them with tools and knowledge to improve their business and find their way into projects that they might not be able to easily access or find.
Lee Parkinson of Parkinson Procurement Solutions leads the YORbuild programme that is now leading all the construction procurement for the four local authorities in East Riding, Leeds, Rotherham and Scarborough, harnessing much of the £1.2 billion of public construction expenditure in the region. Lee provided the latest position on YORbuild with a detailed explanation of how contractors, consultants and suppliers can get involved in the framework arrangements that will be used to procure in future. Interestingly it seems that YORbuild is gaining itself a reputation as other public bodies outside the original organisations are approaching YORbuild to make use of the framework.
Tony Carroll of Provesta (that’s me) then gave a run down of some of the practical measures that firms can look at to improve the quality of their bids. By making their company more skilled, knowledgeable, visible and transparent they can become a more attractive prospect to potential employers by ensuring that they use the talents already within the firm, get new ability where required, and then engage with employers and clients and the community.
Andrew McCormick of Hobson and Porter provided an insight into where future work was to be found and what was required of suppliers that wanted to work with his firm, especially regarding accreditations and skills.
Anne Chamberlain, leads the project management team at East Riding of Yorkshire Council where they have adopted the NEC form of contract on most of their construction projects. Her potted run-down of the contract and how it is implemented explained how they used it to keep on top of project progress, expenditure and amendments.
Finally, Jonathan Cheng of Resource Efficiency Yorkshire / Groundwork UK outlined the myriad legislation and practice requirements that construction businesses need to be aware of in order to meet the current and forthcoming environmental standards. Groundwork are currently running a series of environmental management programmes targeted at helping SME’s devise and implement their own environmental standards.
The slides from the “Connect With Clients – Give Them What They Want” presentation can be found on Slideshare.
