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London Mayor announces new £10 million loan for affordable housing in London
The Mayor of London is forming a partnership with Big Issue Invest to renovate empty properties into much needed new affordable homes in the UK’s capital city. Boris Johnson has awarded a £10 million loan from his Housing Covenant to Big Issue Invest who help small community organisation's to renovate empty homes or buildings to convert them into good quality affordable housing for Londoners to rent or part buy. The funding will revolve over a 10 year period and result in up to 400 empty homes being transformed into good quality low cost housing. In addition it will provide long term unemployed people, veterans and out of work young people from across London the opportunity of employment and training in construction. The Mayor's Housing Covenant supports organisations proposing innovative ways of delivering affordable housing through a Revolving Fund and is one of a number of housing schemes the Mayor is delivering to boost affordable housing, stimulate building and fast track the delivery of thousands of much needed new homes. The proportion of empty homes in the capital has fallen dramatically under the Mayor, and at 0.7% is now at the lowest level since the 1970s. Over 5,000 empty homes have been brought back into use through GLA housing programmes since 2008. ‘With the huge demand for housing it's essential we get empty properties back into use, which is why I'm helping innovative projects renovate them back into much needed affordable homes,’ said Johnson. ‘Big Issue Invest are masters of boosting community social enterprise and delivering key employment and training skills to the homeless and unemployed people who need our extra support. This funding sits alongside my affordable home programme which is on track to deliver 100,000 new low cost homes across the city,’ he added. The Big Issue Group's chairman, Nigel Kershaw, described it as an exciting opportunity. Big Issue Invest is a specialist provider of finance to social enterprises. It provides investment from £50,000 to £1.7million and develops innovative financial solutions which help organisations tackle poverty and create opportunity. Since 2005 Big Issue Invest has invested over £27 million across the UK in more than 330 social enterprises, directly benefitting over 1.8 million people. The new loan will allows Big Issue Invest to finance and support more innovative housing projects undertaken by social enterprises and charities. These projects will serve to increase the volume of affordable housing available in London. The Mayor's commitment to getting empty homes back into use and boosting affordable housing is part of a package of wider measures he is promoting to stimulate house building. Continue reading
Midlands industrial property market picked up in 2014, new research shows
The economic recovery helped industrial properties in the UK’s Midlands pick up in 2014, the latest regional analysis shows. Last year saw a 17.6% increase in sales volumes on industrial properties of more than 100,000 square feet, according to the Birmingham office of global real estate adviser Cushman & Wakefield. Total take up in 2014 of the region’s 100,000 square feet plus properties was 8.79 million square feet of space, which was slightly up on 2013’s 8.63 million square feet, itself the best year for transactions since 2008. In addition, 2014 saw an increase in demand for industrial properties across the board, with the volume of enquiries increasing by 5.5%compared to 2013 and the overall space required increasing by 10%. ‘The improvement in total take-up, volume of enquiries and overall space required witnessed in 2014 is a clear indication that confidence continues to grow in the industrial sector amongst occupiers,’ said David Binks, industrial partner at Cushman & Wakefield in Birmingham. ‘The improving economic conditions continue to encourage business growth leading to increased demand to accommodate both expansion and relocation requirements,’ he added. He explained that the increase in demand had exacerbated the long standing problem in the Midlands of the lack of availability of grade A space. As a result, occupiers found that in 2014 there was less choice available, with some forced between opting to wait for existing buildings or speculative developments or entering the design and build market. For those unable to wait for buildings to be constructed, and with grade B space being limited as well, the only option left was to look at grade C space. Binks said in 2014 many firms opted to go down this route as a temporary solution, particularly those with fixed term contracts to fulfil in sectors such as automotive and distribution. This helped boost take-up of grade C industrial space during the year, with 16 transactions of buildings of more than 100,000 square feet totalling 3.65 million square feet being completed, compared to 2013 where three transactions were completed totalling 830,000 square feet. Take up of similar sized grade B space was less, at 2.14 million square feet compared to 2013 which was 2.62 million square feet, although this reduction is a function of the limited supply of facilities available of this quality. ‘We believe the increase in grade C take up is reflective of occupiers requiring immediate occupation of buildings on three to five year term certain deals, rather than better quality buildings where longer lease terms would be required. This is especially the case for third party logistics companies, where contract lengths tend to be three and five years, and more lease flexibility is important,’ Binks pointed out. ‘The shift in demand for grade C space in 2014 over grade B is reflective of a greater quantity of take up in of the latter in 2013, which significantly reduced stock levels. Essentially the market has continued to polarise, if an occupier wanted to take… Continue reading
New home building set to remain strong in Australia, it is claimed
Lending figures shows that new home building activity in Australia is set to remain at a strong level, according to the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry. During November 2014, the number of owner occupier loans for the construction or purchase of new dwellings declined by 1.4% but lending was 4.6% higher than the same month in 2013. Furthermore, new home loans increased by 0.7% in the three months to November and were 7.3% higher than the same period a year earlier. Comparing the total number of owner occupier loans for new housing in November 2014 with November 2013 shows the strongest increases was in the Northern Territory with growth of 63.9% and in Tasmania with growth of 14.3%. There were also increases in Victoria where growth was 3.3%, Queensland up 1.6% and South Australia up 1.7%. However, new loan volumes fell in in New South Wales by 6.9%, in Western Australia by 4.6% and in the ACT by 2.3% over the past year. HIA senior economist Shane Garrett pointed out that building approvals reached an all-time high during November, and the lending figures add further to the evidence that Australia’s new home building industry will start 2015 on a strong footing. But he also warned that although the number of loans remains high there is little sign of further growth. ‘The number of loans for new home purchase has fallen over the past year. Fortunately, the flow of loans for new home construction is very solid,’ he explained. ‘Indeed, the number of new home construction loans in November was 7.6% higher than a year ago. Healthily functioning housing markets should see a substantial turnover of homes in any given month,’ he pointed out. ‘However, the total volume of loans for home purchase has been falling consistently over the past few months. As home prices have risen, so too have the stamp duty bills paid by ordinary home owners. Excessive taxation is hampering the efficient operation of Australia’s housing market. The issue requires immediate attention,’ he added. Continue reading
