It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Rob Woolston, director at multi-disciplinary design practice, rg+p Ltd.
Residential development has seen a turbulent period over the last 18 months. The bubble of positivity post-Covid was dissipated by the issues of high inflation and ‘Truss’ economics, leading to significant headwinds across the residential market.
I’m hopeful these will begin to ease in 2024, with inflation continuing to fall and therefore the real likelihood of interest rates beginning to come back down too. Whilst this won’t happen with any speed, confidence among private residential and later living developers can start to re-build with the knowledge things are heading in the right direction.
Of course, there are still challenges to overcome. Price pressures and a stubborn land market will leave the affordable housing sector difficult to navigate; construction material prices will present viability issues; and not forgetting the changes to Building Regulations and upcoming Future Homes Standard and Building Safety Act that will affect almost every project and should not be underestimated. Our technical director has invested considerable time interpreting these and we’re strongly advising clients to plan time to consult on the implications.
The big hurdle next year will be the general election and potential change of government. While this is shaped and a new financial environment emerges, we expect funding decisions to be delayed and this will particularly impact Built-to-Rent development, where we don’t anticipate much growth until 2025.
Despite this, I still believe the property and built environment sector has reason to be cautiously optimistic, and even positive going into 2024.
