Editor’s comment: “London is to the billionaire what the jungles of Sumatra are to the orang-utan.”
That was then London mayor Boris Johnson four years ago – almost to the day – opening the London Real Estate Forum.
Contrast that with the speeches at this year’s LREF opener. The chasm between them highlight how much real estate has changed in a short period. And how much further it has to go to stay connected – in every sense of the word.
Part-filling the Johnson slot at LREF this year was Westminster Council’s cabinet member for planning, Richard Beddoe. His message could hardly have been further removed from Johnson’s.
Promising to tackle a perception that planning policies have worked better for “the property industry than the people who live here”, Beddoe said: “If an application is, for example, to build mega homes most likely occupied by absent oligarchs, these will do nothing for our city and the application will be refused.” The message? Billionaires – and those who build for them – need to find a new jungle to play in.
Speaking alongside Beddoe was Grosvenor Britain & Ireland chief executive Craig McWilliam. He acknowledged the industry’s failure to change quickly enough.
“Like all businesses, we face growing calls to explain our value to society. And the truth is that at Grosvenor – just as at other property companies – we have failed to tell a story in clear enough ways.”
The upshot? “We have a binary debate instead of pragmatism, honesty and creativity from all sides.
“Public trust in the planning process and the intentions of the real estate sector are deteriorating. Because there is no single solution to the housing shortage, complexity makes simple assertions attractive with a stand-off between communities, the private sector and the public sector.”
With developers often perceived to be the problem rather than the solution, the industry needs to do more to – in McWilliam’s words – “meet the public aspiration for the wider benefits of private investment”.
Post-Grenfell, mid-Corbyn and pre-Brexit, to do business in London it’s an aspiration that will have to be met.
■ As EG’s first Future of Real Estate Week wraps up, it is clear the impact of tech is deepening day by day.
It’s changing relationships. Customers used to be those who sat up the chain – investors – but tech (and data) is helping drive a welcome shift in focus downstream to the tenant.
Tech (and especially data) is also driving an equally welcome shift of focus from buildings to the people who occupy them.
And, crucially, data and tech are bringing forward the benefits of change. For example, both are helping improve tenants’ rental experiences years before the benefits of much-needed, longer-term improvements to housing stock can be felt.
Ignore the impact of data in particular at your peril. As frequent EG contributor Anthony Slumbers put it during our latest Tech Live event this week: “Any surveyor who thinks they are not in the data business better have already made their money.
“But they are not ONLY in the data business. They are in the real estate, technology, data, UX and hospitality business. And all matter.”
To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@egi.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
