By Jess Macaulay,
Thank you to everyone who joined us at June’s meeting in London this month. It was a sunny meeting filled with lots of questions mimicking what we’re also seeing in real time in the property market.
A conversation with James Pick from Konnexsion in May resulted in a fascinating talk from him at June’s meeting about artificial intelligence (AI). It was clear to see that the rate of change within this field is phenomenal. Technology is developing, cost to create it is reducing and the speed of change is increasing. James felt that overall, this would be a positive for businesses as it supported agile and connected teams within companies. AI provided team members with extra time via AI to think and achieve what they’re seeking to do. He felt that it provided a way to maximise knowledge within smaller organisations. A key take away was for individuals to watch this rapidly changing market and seek to understand it as best as possible because it will no doubt change the way we live and work together.
Andreas Yianni from CrowdProperty next kindly took the audience through how best to value a development opportunity. Using their extensive in-house experience, he ran through why you would take this approach, things to be aware of in a moving market, where he felt the market was moving and the fact that things are currently feeling a lot more uncertain, so a requirement needs to be put in place to mitigate that via proper due diligence and deal stacking. Market data is very often 6 months behind what is happening within the market and can also show data that relates to national coverage vs. your local area. Lots of interesting nuggets in the talk that can be found via The Vault.
Peter Vandervennin from the Mortgage Consultancy discussed the ever-changing lending landscape. Pete mentioned there are some exciting new lenders emerging that can discuss purchases that have not previously been possible to look at or come with high rates. We also heard that those at RICS had a more positive viewpoint on the market than many of the people in the room. Several lenders had pulled rates this week following a volatile week in the market highlighting the need to work with your broker to ensure you’re getting the best rates and deals are stacking in this market.
Finally, we had Rod Turner one of the PIP partners, open the floor for a Q&A session for our members, speakers, and sponsors to answer any questions that we had. I couldn’t possibly go into the detail of everything that was discussed but suffice to say there were lots of questions around areas such as joint ventures, company structures, due diligence and many more. I think it’s fair to say that everyone is analysing what’s happening in the market and in deals in a lot more detail so definitely one to catch up on if you have any questions currently.
All the presentations will be available for members that could not attend on the PIP Vault.
Next month we are meeting at the Dickens Inn on Thursday the 13th of July, 9.30-4pm with networking post meeting. We will be hearing from our sponsors as well as being joined by our keynote speakers which include PIP partner Adam Lawrence and planning specialist Ian Walmsley from Planning Geek. If you’re interested in becoming a member and joining us, please visit the membership page here.
We’re looking forward to seeing you all next month, Jess, and Des.
