EDITOR’S COMMENT: Congratulations to Lendlease, selected this week by HS2 to deliver the £4bn redevelopment of Euston, perhaps the most coveted regeneration opportunity of recent years.
It’s a 30-year play which will see a new HS2 station, a redevelopment of the existing Network Rail station and, perhaps, a new Crossrail 2 station to boot.
Seeing off its rivals was no mean feat. Argent had King’s Cross as its calling card (boosted by Related’s Hudson Yards scheme in New York). Canary Wharf, in its own words, “achieved one of the greatest ever feats of civic engineering, turning a once derelict Docklands into 97 acres of London’s, and the world’s, most sought after office and retail space”. (Boosted by MTR’s perhaps unrivalled global reputation for transport delivery).
So why LendLease?
The reason may lie in an explanation of the company’s philosophy, given to me six or so years ago by Dan Labbad, its head of international operations and Europe: “The projects that we look for around the world are complex. We go for the hard ones, because the barriers to entry are high. And we think property is going to become more complex.”
On its website, LendLease puts it more succinctly: “Very few organisations can build cities from scratch, but we can.”
Built to rent
Build to rent? Over priced, over specced and (all) over here – a view, held by some, that’s stubbornly hard to disprove.
A series of videos on the EG website may help. Masquerading as a “rentysomething” – wearing a checked shirt and skinny jeans, EG’s Alex Peace tours five London schemes. He paints a more varied picture than many assume – variety in price, amenity and maturity of offer. Watched together (go to Alex’s Twitter page @EGAlexPeace), the videos suggest a market that is growing more sophisticated and more differentiated.
It’s not just a London story of course. A handful of headlines picked from a variety of publications to land in recent days and weeks proves that: “GRAHAM wins £86m Liverpool build to rent tower”, “Dundee’s first Build to Rent development secures green light”, “New £25m ‘build to rent’ scheme proposed for Belfast”.
Expect further differentiation in the months ahead. Product branding will become more important; alignment with consumer products preferred by a scheme’s target market will too. And variety in price will widen. Yes, some flats do appear expensive. But others seem to offer surprising value.
That said, one factor will do more to determine a scheme’s success than any other: transport infrastructure.
Crossrail 1 is the hard sell behind many pre-existing schemes; Crossrail 2 will unlock or stall others.
It’s the same nationally, HS2 is already transforming Birmingham’s built to rent offer, Northern Powerhouse rail could do the same further up the country.
How to hire a CTO
Late last year, the New Zealand government began the search for chief technology officer. Some 62 people applied for a job that came with a £265,000 package and would report into the prime minister no less. Last week ministers said they couldn’t find anyone equipped to “ensure a whole-of-government approach is taken to tackling the challenges of the future”. The search continues.
As proptech occupies more and more of this industry’s working hours, this experience should give those thinking about hiring a CTO pause for thought. Don’t act because you feel you should – be clear about the role and its priorities. Once committed, don’t expect the process to be a quick one. And do consider attending next week’s EG’s How to Hire a CTO event in London. It’s free – considerably less than what you will have to pay to hire for what is now the best-paid job in tech.
To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@egi.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
