What’s happening in the UK rental market? With Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla and Anna Clare Harper

Deepa Deb is Head of International Real Estate Investment at law firm Watson Farley & Williams, with accolades including regularly being ranked in Chambers & Partners as a leading lawyer in real estate and being rated as one of the Hot 100 most influential lawyers (The Lawyer). We chatted on the podcast about: What innovations (in particular the use of AI) can improve efficiency and reliability of legal work in transactions What UK residential can learn from other parts of real estate and from other countries about transactions Career advice for aspiring lawyers Guest website: https://www.wfw.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepa-deb/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

I had the chance to chat with Katherine Russell, Director of Build to Rent at the John Lewis Partnership about retail, real estate and Build to Rent. Topics included: The journey that the John Lewis Partnership - better known for homewares than housing - has been on with real estate generally, and residential property specifically, from owning ‘tops above shops’ to Build to Rent Lessons learned through John Lewis’s Real Estate Portfolio, the New West End Company’s (a partnership of 600 West End-based businesses) Advisory Board and Dolphin Living (an independent charity with an endowment of £120m to provide affordable homes for Londoners) What next for Build to Rent and the UK Private Rental Sector Guest website: https://www.jlpjobs.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-russell-simmonds-73206933/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

My good friend Andrew Teacher grilled me in my capacity as CEO of GreenResi on unlocking responsible UK residential investment at scale. Topics include: The residential market opportunity: scale, growing income and resilience underpinned by demographics How to deploy rapidly at scale: acquiring granular existing rentals for faster, less risky, less carbon intensive access to residential vs Build to Rent How processes can be optimised to improve efficiency and reliability throughout the deal lifecycle  Anna Clare Harper LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Anna Clare Harper website: https://www.greenresi.com/ Andrew Teacher website: ⁠https://montfort.london/⁠ Andrew Teacher LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewteacher/⁠

I loved chatting to Cath Webster, CEO of Thriving Investments, the fund manager with a social conscience backed by Places for People, the UK's leading Social Enterprise which owns or manages over 240,000 homes for 500,000 Customers across the UK. We covered: The different segments in residential such as Affordable Rented, Social Rented and Private Rented How Build to Rent has evolved, from ‘Gen1’ to today, including the rise and fall of amenities Investment yield valuations, why liquidity is so low in Build to Rent and what this means for BtR players. Guest website: https://www.thrivinginvestments.co.uk/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/526783/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

I chatted to Simon Scott, Lead Director, Living Capital Markets UK at the second largest global property advisor, JLL, about the future of ‘living capital’ (which is essentially the institutionally-funded segment of the real estate market which people live in). Topics include: What we can learn from 2023 around the resilience of residential investment Factors influencing investment valuations, from fire safety to operating companies Will 2024 be the worst year yet for new housing developments? Guest website: https://www.jll.co.uk/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-scott-151a2669/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: GreenResi.com

It’s been a while since I didn’t have a high powered guest on the podcast, and a lot has been happening in the market and in my world.  So this week, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some of that (read: talk to myself!), answering some of the questions I get asked frequently about the market and my business. Topics include: Key social, environmental and investor trends in the UK Private Rental Sector Developing tools to scale, including acquisition pipeline management and portfolio monitoring The difference between Build to Rent, seen as ‘good’ and buy-to-let, seen as ‘bad’ in terms of management infrastructure (processes, systems, budgets, externalities etc) Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: www.GreenResi.com

I had the chance to chat with Jessica Pilz, Head of Sustainable Investing at £90bn Asset Manager, Fiera Capital. Topics included: How to integrate Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) considerations into commercial investment decisions, and when to say no to attractive financial returns Innovation and ‘insetting’ instead of offsetting How to use partnerships to address complex environmental and social challenges whilst achieving commercial success Guest website: https://www.fieracapital.com/en Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-pilz-483b1b1b/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

I chatted with Emma Long, Head of Business Strategy, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) Real Assets Equity about how one of the largest asset managers in Europe, with global Assets under Management of £1.2 trillion, makes sound investment decisions and adapts to market changes. Topics include: The implications of a changing investor landscape with Direct Benefit pensions buyouts and Direct Contribution pensions growth How asset management is increasingly about customer (occupier) engagement not just assets, and what this means What asset managers look for including investment strategies that work based on long term thematics or market timing/mispricing, alpha or unique access/expertise and scale  LGIM’s Social Value Framework and Net Zero Carbon Roadmap progress  Guest website: https://www.lgim.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-long-906a785/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

I had a wonderful chat with Sadie Malim, Head of ESG and Legal at Moorfield, a £3.9bn specialist investor, on the podcast.  Key topics included: The democratisation of real estate What ‘alternative’ and ‘operational’ really mean (when UK residential is 8 x larger than UK commercial property and 4 x larger than the FTSE 100!) Advice for investors exploring ESG integration in residential to rent  Real life examples of the most exciting alternative real estate strategies including self-storage and single family rental, and critical lessons learned. Guest website: https://www.moorfield.com/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sadie-malim/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/ The Return: Property & Investment Podcast has been featured in Feedspot’s UK and London ‘Best Real Estate Podcasts’ lists, coming in at #4 in the UK! ⁠https://podcasts.feedspot.com/uk_real_estate_podcasts/⁠ ⁠https://blog.feedspot.com/london_real_estate_podcasts/⁠

Alex Notay is Placemaking & Investment Director at Thriving Investments, which aims to be the most socially responsible asset management company in the housing sector, and is part of Places for People.  She’s an internationally recognised expert on Build to Rent and ESG in residential, and she has helped lead residential and ESG committees for leading industry bodies ULI, BPF and AREF. So she was the perfect guest to explain how we should be measuring ESG risks and impacts in residential. We covered topics including: What are the key trends shaping how we approach sustainability? Which are the best of 500+ real estate and sustainability benchmarks for residential? Key lessons from writing (my personal favourite ESG report of recent years), ‘Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): Why it matters and how to get started - A Guide for the Institutional PRS (British Property Federation) BPF Residential ESG Guidance report: https://bpf.org.uk/media/4534/bpf-residential-esg-guidance.pdf Guest website: https://www.thrivinginvestments.co.uk/ Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandranotayparr/ Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/ Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/