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The specialist property lender has developed its own digital private wealth platform for high-net-worth investors.  

ASK Partners have recently announced that £45m invested in commercial and residential real estate debt has been exchanged via its secondary market platform.

The platform, according to ASK, is currently used by an exclusive network of individuals and family offices to invest in commercial and residential property loans originated by the organisations specialist lending team.

People involved with the platform, also have the option to exist via a secondary market and this exchange function has now facilitated 174 transactions between ASK’s private client investors on loans provided for commercial and residential real estate across the UK.

Against this backdrop, experts have found that 71% of the loans provided went to covering planning costs associated with the real estate projects, with the largest property type being mixed-use/life-science projects (24%).

Following closely behind were mixed use residential buildings as 23% of loans provided went into these schemes.

Mark Templeman, CIO at ASK, commented: ‘Reaching over £45m in exchanges is evident of the growing number of investors looking for the greater choice, flexibility, and liquidity which our private wealth platform can provide.  

‘ASK’s investment in technology aims to reshape the market, challenging traditional fund managers and operators, and fostering evolution in property finance and private investment sectors.

‘We are committed to developing our own digital platform to meet the rising demand from high-net-worth investors for a best-in-class service and the ability to fully manage their own portfolio in one place online.’

From the research, regionally, London came out on top of the list for investment opportunities (85%), however, in a shocking turn of events, the Midlands was found to represent 5% of all secondary transactions.

Image: Tierra Mallorca

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A study of 25 million British homes has found that just over half of properties still only meet the insulation standards set in 1976 or earlier.

In the words of Cher, if we could ‘turn back time’, I’m sure developers and builders would try and create better insulated homes if they knew how the state of housing in England would turn out in 2024.

Two years ago EDF Energy, in partnership with property data platform Sprift, analysed the current levels of home insulation (including floor, roof, window and walls) against buildings regulations that were set across different time periods to calculate the nation’s ‘Home Insulation Age’.  

Experts, who examined 25 million homes, found over 13 million properties in England and Wales, which equates to (55%), only meet the insulation standards of 1976 Building Regulations or earlier.

However, the latest iteration of research, which was published yesterday, has revealed that there has been a small improvement in the nation’s home insulation standards over the past two years, with 18% of properties now having an insulation age of 2022 or younger compared to 8% that was discovered two years ago.

However, most of this improvement comes from newer properties, built since 2022 which are required to meet new regulatory insulation standards. 

The primary causes of heat loss in these homes are insufficient cavity wall insulation, absence of double-glazed windows, inadequate loft insulation, and poor floor insulation. These are all features that current building regulations require.

Philippe Commaret, Managing Director for Customers at EDF, said: ‘It’s clear from this research that, despite the energy crisis, little progress has been made in improving the energy efficiency of older British homes in the past two years, meaning millions of homeowners are missing out on significant savings on their energy bills.

‘Our ongoing efforts to support and improve crucial initiatives such as the Great British Insulation Scheme will help empower customers to embrace energy efficiency so they can save both cash and carbon.’

Although energy prices have been coming down over the past few months, bills remain, on average, 56% higher than they were before the cost-of-living crisis began. Despite this fact, researchers found that two thirds of respondents are unaware of the EPC rating of their home and almost a fifth of homeowners have no knowledge about various insulation methods available to help individuals save money in the long-run.

As there have been little changes to housing insulation standards, EDF Energy are now lobbing the government to expand their Great British Insulation Scheme [GIBS] in the following ways:

• Allowing the installation of more than one measure. Currently only one measure per home is allowed. Allowing multiple measures in homes that require them would help customers lower customers energy bills and carbon footprint, as well as reducing the costs of delivering the scheme.

• Including heating control measures e.g. room thermostats, as a secondary measure for all customer groups (currently only delivered within the ‘low income group’). Heating controls are cost effective to install and can bring a big benefit on bill and usage reduction for households.

• Extending the scheme eligibility to include Council Tax Band E homes in England, which would bring in scope an additional 2.4 million homes – representing an extra 10% of all homes in England. Currently the eligibility criteria is Council Tax Bands A-D. This could open up much needed support to customers, including those on low incomes, struggling with the cost of heating a larger home.

Image: Erik Mclean

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The news recently has been rife with ways on how to improve buildings’ fire safety. However, Carter Jonas’ James Staveley, examines how the development of tall buildings will be effected by such changes. 

Following the 2017 Grenfell fire, the issue of fire safety within high-rise residential blocks has come into sharp focus. It had become abundantly clear that the UK needed to update regulations to prevent such a tragedy happening again. In Summer 2023 the government announced that the threshold for the introduction of second staircases into new residential buildings would be reduced to 18 metres, effectively in the region of seven storeys in height. This was an update on announced plans in late 2022 that second staircases would be required in buildings of over 30 metres. Although the government have published and confirmed its building safety guidance for second staircases to be implemented, in October last year it was revealed that there will be a 30-month transitional period from when they will be introduced. 

So how will the new regulations impact the development of tall buildings?

The new policy will reduce the sales areas within schemes: traditionally, developers of residential towers in urban areas aim for at least 80% of a floor plate as ‘saleable’ (individual apartments for sale, as opposed to circulation spaces). With the requirement for a second staircase and the additional corridor area that this necessitates, the ratio of saleable area to circulation space would reduce by approximately 5-10%.

In parts of London, on an eight-storey development, this could result in a reduction in gross development value by maybe £1-2m per floor and a total reduction of possibly £15m or more. Clearly, this has a significant impact on the land values anticipated by landowners and could even lead to challenging viability when coupled with other factors such as escalating build and finance costs and affordable housing.

In instances where land has been purchased at a premium, developers may then look to use the requirement for an additional staircase to argue for reductions in the levels of affordable housing from policy-compliant levels.

Alternatively, developers may look at options to reduce the height of developments to below the 18m threshold, maintaining the strong relationship between a building’s footprint and saleable area. Whilst this would result in fewer units, it could be that for landowners promoting such schemes through the planning process, a ‘less is more’ approach is sought instead, to maximise the land value. Certainly, there would appear to be limited commercial value in pushing to promote for a development with a single additional storey – which could result in more units but may introduce a requirement for a second staircase. As such, it is likely that future schemes will either be below 18m or will be considerably higher.

This would then have a knock-on effect on urban councils, which need more housing to support a growing population. Sites which have previously been consented for eight, nine or ten storeys may no longer be viable. This would especially impact parts of Zones 3-6 in Greater London. With limited land supply for new residential schemes, there is a preference for taller developments in these locations, where sales values in the region of £650-£800 per sq ft may be anticipated. Councils in such areas may potentially be forced to look at additional or alternative sites for housing.

Developers who chose to submit a planning application for a lower height development than previously consented may be criticised for under-development, even if such a scheme is demonstrated to be the optimum financially and delivers policy-compliant levels of affordable housing. And whilst some councils may accept a reduction in scale, this will lead to a decrease in CIL revenues, which could impact investment in local services. There would also be fewer affordable housing units delivered overall as the number of such units is based on a percentage of total units constructed.

The alternative may be for even taller developments than had previously been considered appropriate. This will greatly increase density, which apart from being very controversial, may, in some circumstances exacerbate social problems.

There is a strong possibility that the design and density of buildings will change: the days of eight-storey development could be limited with a preference for either developments to be reduced to seven storeys or below. The impact on tight development sites is likely to be greatest. Having once exceeded the height threshold to enable a second staircase to be included as a part of a scheme a developer will likely push the height as much as possible to maintain a gross development value to compensate a reduced gross-to-net ratio. For a scheme on the cusp of the requirement for a second staircase, the developer’s preference would probably be for a decreased height, unless they can secure reductions in the levels of affordable housing. The alternative might be for developers to absolutely maximise building footprints and minimise the impact on the saleable area.

Either way, this very significant legislation will change both developers’ approaches to tall buildings and city skylines too.

Images: João Barbosa and Sean Pollock

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Plans to construct 130 new homes on two neighbouring sites in the northern city have been revealed.

Incommunities, one of the largest social housing providers in Yorkshire which was formed in 2023 after a stock transfer from Bradford Council, has submitted an application for the plots of land in the Ravenscliffe area.

If the application is approved, one set of homes will be built on land to the east of Roundwood Glen and Ranelagh Avenue, which is located near Fagley Beck. The other set of properties will be taking place on an area of green land off Norbury Road.

However, before the development can take place the planning application has also requested to improve Norbury Road – an unmade road that passes through one of the sites that will become the main access for some of the new houses.

The application said: ‘The scheme will deliver economic, social, and environmental benefits whilst utilising the space to meet an identified housing need within the area and will deliver positive outcomes for the local area.’

Although, the application goes on to detail that trees will have to be removed from the sites and that any controversy that this might cause should be considered against the ‘delivery of a significant number of homes and the provision of landscaping.’

The application added: ‘Ultimately, the scheme has sought to deliver a successful housing scheme on the allocated site.’

One part of making this new scheme ‘successful’ includes the plans to incorporate certain measures that boost biodiversity in the area with street trees and hedgerows, according to the Local democracy Reporting Service.

News of these new homes potentially being in the pipeline couldn’t have come at a better time as recent data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed full-time workers in Bradford could except to spend 5.1 times their annual earnings on purchasing a home in 2023 – close to the ratio of five times the previous year.

In addition, figures from the ONS found that houses in Bradford were 3.2% more expensive last year as opposed to 2022, at an average price of £160,000.

MPs from Bradford Council are due to meet in June to discuss the new homes application.

Image: Richard Horne

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A geothermal heat pump project, worth millions, has launched in Nottinghamshire with an aim to save British Geological Survey’s (BGS) headquarters 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Ruth Edwards, MP for Rushcliffe, broke ground on the scheme, which was launched towards the end of last week. The project, worth £1.7 million, is the largest renewable energy system of its kind in the area, consisting of an array of 28 boreholes drilled into the depth of 225m.

Forming part of BGS’s Keyworth campus decarbonisation plans, the new energy system will see the removal of gas boilers and will heat two buildings on the site.

News of the new project taking off has been welcomed with open arms, especially as more organisations are pushing to hit net zero goals by 2040.

Ross Goodband, senior environmental engineer at Pick Everard – the company leading the scheme – said: ‘This is a complex and fascinating project to be a part of. It has seen several members of our geo-environmental, project management and building services teams work closely with BGS and their partners. Our role was to carefully manage the initial investigation and subsequent installation of the borehole array, utilising the latest borehole drilling and downhole geophysical techniques.’

‘Our combined work has facilitated several research experiments, including core analysis, electrical resistivity, thermal modelling and a full suite of downhole geophysics, which will help inform our knowledge of environmentally-sound energy solutions, such as ground-source heat pumps, in our public and private infrastructure,’ Ross added. ‘We look forward to playing an active role as the site evolves over the coming years and continue our long-standing relationship with BGS.’

In addition, Steve Wilkinson, head of commercial projects at Cenergist, remarked: ‘Cenergist are proud to be supporting the British Geological Survey in their plans to achieve net zero by 2040. Our solution for this site will provide modernised futureproof low carbon heating and hot water systems to these two buildings, significantly reducing carbon emissions.’

Funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) and the UK government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, this huge project has helped to restore some faith that organisations are looking to install heat pumps, after research that was reported last month found that the UK are falling majorly behind on heat pump targets.  

Daniel Crow, head of BGS Estates and Facilities, said: ‘This exciting project gives us the opportunity to blend our observation of the subsurface with leading low-carbon heating. The disruption to BGS staff will be kept to a minimum, with short closures of a couple of buildings to allow for the installation of heat emitters.

‘The drilling and heat pump installation is due to last around three months. The borehole installation should not impact on Keyworth site operations due to the careful planning and specification involved in the project.’

Image: Pick Everard 

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