Eye spy a strong cast for awards
Perhaps EG’s Rising Stars awards – shortlist announced this week – should be rebranded “Rising Spies”. Our successful 14 candidates got plenty of attention on social media, not least from JLL director Neil Worrall, who noticed a striking resemblance between them and the brooding cast of BBC’s Spooks. The winner, to be announced on 14 September at the EG Awards, is sure to get fast-tracked into MI6.
The digital wall
When pure proptech fund Fifth Wall launched in May this year with a $212m (£164m) raise, it staked its claim as one of the most powerful players in the sector.
But when it comes to getting the more traditional property companies on side, sometimes simple tactics are the most effective.
Speaking to EG, founders Brendan Wallace and Brad Greiwe revealed that when they go to see companies where paper ledgers are still used to sign in visitors, they sometimes swipe the log book from the reception desk on their way up to the meeting.
“We take it in to whoever we are seeing and put it on the table in front of them to show them what we have in our hands,” says Greiwe. “It’s significant. We are often talking about 12 months of building data that’s just lying around for anyone to walk off with. We do it to show them that if anyone did actually leave the building with that book, they would never get the data back. It would be gone forever. And all because they are still using a paper ledger in a digital age.”
You heard it here first, ditch the log books or you might just find it ends up in the wrong hands. Or in Fifth Wall’s HQ.
Whose backyard is it?
NIMBYs are often accused of lying about the green belt and painting a rosy image of a rural paradise that would be concreted over if developers got their way when, in reality, much of it is scrubland or a golf course. It’s a particular problem in areas where there is a dire need for housing.
That includes Oxford, which the Centre for Cities says is the most unaffordable location in the country. But NIMBYs there have taken it to a new level.
People opposing the development of 4,400 houses in Begbroke and Yarnton were captured on camera holding a banner featuring a picture of beautiful rolling fields with the words #ourgreenbelt.
It was the sort of rustic idyll where no person in their right mind would want any form of development. But then Priced Out housing campaigner Duncan Stott did some digging and found that the image they used was nowhere near Begbroke and Yarnton. Those beautiful rolling fields were in Coberley, 30 miles away. These NIMBYs were arguably living up to their name by using a picture that really was “not in my back yard” at all.
All’s well that ends well
This week while visiting M7 Real Estate’s swanky new offices at the Monument Building, EC3, the thing that impressed Diary the most was not the pool table, beer on tap, arcade machine, putting green, standing desks or even the tripling in floor space from its previous Southwark headquarters. What really caught Diary’s keen eye was the installation of a wellness room for when employees need to get away from the fast pace of the rapidly expanding business. As well as soft lighting and Swiss balls, the room also features a rocking chair where chief executive Richard Croft can relax when it all becomes a bit too much.
Computer says ‘no!’
An overhaul of the business rates appeal system has been panned by small businesses, not least for the new website that is meant to allow companies to “check, challenge, appeal” their business rate burden.
Appeals have fallen off a cliff since the system was introduced in April. It is hardly a surprise, as when Gerald Eve’s Jerry Schurder logged on to the site, he was simply greeted with the word “forbidden”. He tweeted: “Ooh! Here’s a scary new error message from the shambolic VOA business rates appeal website. Some higher force now involved?!”
