Diary isn’t promising that sending us cute cat animal pics will guarantee you a mention on the page, but it won’t hurt. We were delighted then to receive word from Stephanie Smith, operations director at “pet-friendly” Atlas Residential, on the growing impact our furry friends are having on the BTR sector.
With pets increasingly welcomed into rental homes, that means taking them into account when designing new developments. As well as providing open space to walk dogs, Smith says cats get a look-in too, recommending: “Gardens that have catnip planted in among the other flora and fauna are ideal.” Our advice? Watch out for unfair leash terms (sorry).
A right royal result
The birth of a new royal baby is big news. But apparently not quite as headline-grabbing as the annual RICS World Built Environment Forum (WBEF) conference. The event, held at the O2 on the theme of digital transformation this week, was just getting under way when news broke that the Duchess of Cambridge had gone into labour. Event host James Chau took to the stage following the keynote from Tesla co-founder JB Straubel and took great delight in informing delegates that while #royalbaby was trending on Twitter at number three, #WBEF was holding firm at number two.
Mann big on liberty
The only thing better than a quiz is a nail-biting tie-breaker to decide the winner. Lucky then for those taking part in the TFT LandAid quiz last week, who were treated to just that. The captains of the two winning teams (the names of which, while inventive, are too lewd to print) were subjected to a deciding question as everyone looked on. We know what they say about panicking under pressure but one team captain, TFT’s David Mann – who appeared in these pages just two weeks ago following his completion of the Paris marathon – appeared to briefly lose all sense of scale. His answer to the question “how tall is the Statue of Liberty?” came in at a rather generous 750m. That would put Lady Liberty (who actually measures 93m) among the world’s highest structures! We can only assume his guess was exaggerated on purpose to ensure the win didn’t go to the home team. Very gracious.
Bard data
Last Monday was Shakespeare Day, the 402nd anniversary of the famous playwright’s death. To celebrate, Knight Frank compared property price performance in key locations. Makes sense. The Bard’s birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon, came out on top ahead of the Danish town of Helsingør (setting of Hamlet), Dover (King Lear), Croatia (Twelfth Night) and Inverness (Macbeth). KF also compared the average price performance of homes numbered 2b across England and Wales with those numbered 2a, 2c, etc. Over three and five years, 2b lost out, but based on 2017’s figures, it surged ahead. Patrick Gower, associate in the residential research team, said: “The 2017 data dashed our hopes of obtaining a conclusive answer. So 2b or not 2b remains the question.”
A teachable moment
A developer – who alas shall not be named – was doing an open day for their proposed scheme in the home counties recently. Invited along to see the existing building were locals, politicians and school parties – the usual suspects. Alas, for one unfortunate teacher, it was not a school trip to be remembered: walking round the scheme, in front of the entire class, they went through the floor. There’s a lesson there for developers.
Flying the flag
RICS enjoyed some free publicity this week, as its eye-catching purple flags fluttered behind footage of the unveiling of the statue of suffragette Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square. The long-overdue first statue of a woman to grace the Square now stands within view of the RICS HQ, giving the organisation global exposure. Fittingly, on the same day she was unveiled, the breakfast panel discussion at WBEF was “Retention of women in property and construction”. Fawcett would surely have approved.
