Alan Fletcher

Habits

In this week's blog, we begin with a simple question: Could the pension changes on the horizon be a tailwind for P2P lending and IFISA inflows? Could new habits be created within an older generation of savers & investors, flying in the face of the well-worn narratives around risk? We speculate

The Office

In this week's blog, we have picked up on a recent story published in The Guardian newspaper around a national pushback on PDR schemes, stating that dozens of businesses and individuals have presented an open letter to the government demanding an end to "office-to-residential conversions" across England, which their analysis

Institution

One of the topics we have covered extensively over the years is the paradigm shift in the perception of old-fashioned peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, from a quirky experiment to a regulated sector commanding a book value of multiple billions and revenue in the hundreds of millions. So at this point, as

Rent

For this week's blog, we have looked at the August 2025 edition of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report entitled Private Rental Affordability in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, to assess the ever-widening disparity between UK rents and UK income and have quickly concluded that the UK housing market

Democratising

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go," is a quote attributed to the sublime T.S. Eliot, but could that kind of boldness be utilised in reframing the way we look at institutional grade asset classes in the UK, and

Romano Tours

One of the most frequent questions that arises in passing conversation is comparisons between our asset class and others, in particular housing-based asset classes, such as direct investment into property assets, and holding buy-to-lets. These chats usually include the pros and cons, the yield projections, risk and reward of capital

Partner, not Borrower

Now, anyone with a smattering of sales acumen will tell you that the words 'partners' or 'partnerships' are much more beguiling than 'borrower' or 'client', with their subtle suggestion of a symbiosis of equals. Still, we use that word within our business, not just for aesthetic reasons; it's used as

Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity

We will never fully know if Shakespeare, when setting about writing 'As You Like It', and first coining the poignant musing embedded in this week's blog title, was 1. Thinking about finding deeper meaning in the bittersweet challenges of life, or 2. Thinking about signals for well-positioned property developers to

The Land Must Belong to All Who Toil

In this week's blog, we take a deeper look at some of the different scenarios that could occur should we see the announcement of the much-debated Wealth Tax in this year's Autumn budget. With a possible 2% tax on assets held over £ 10 million being mooted, supporters are quick to

Inertia to Intention.

Banks, like Antelopes, tend to move in herds when reacting to a threat. As the looming threat of liquidity preservation emerges in a falling rate environment, banks, like Antelopes, know that if they want to see another sunrise over the Savannah, they must move quickly. As overall loan demand from

Things We Think and Do Not Say

The UK woke up today to headlines stating that house prices have achieved their most significant monthly fall in more than two years, according to Nationwide survey data, with a 0.8% drop last month, the largest of significance since February 2023. There will be much discussion about why, with

Taps

'Slavery, O Slavery! I cannot conceive'... In this week's blog, we examine a story that some voices in the media have misrepresented, transforming what could be one of several practical solutions to the significant labour shortage in UK home building into something slightly more sinister. We unpack how proposed and

The Needs of the Many

In this week's blog, we take a closer look at the latest round of spending commitments from the Chancellor and ask a straightforward question: is there a third option beyond tax and debt? At the time of writing, having just announced £11 billion in planned government expenditure across all sectors,

Cookie Cutter

In this week's piece, we find ourselves once again drawn into the political wrangling around housing plans as the national-level spending review beckons. Chances are, you should be reading this on Wednesday of this week, perhaps en route to the country's premier financial services expo hosted by our lovely friends

Bold Moves

In this week's blog, which once again explores the world of housing conundrums and developer difficulties, we turn to the paradoxical nature of our planning system and ask ourselves: how can our antiquated system be future-proofed without shifting the burgeoning cost burden onto the very people the system is meant

Alphabet Soup

According to popular folklore, the term "seeking Alpha" was first attributed to an investment analyst at Morgan Stanley in 2004, when a name was required to define an active investment strategy focused on a measure of excess over and above a benchmarked return on a risk-adjusted basis. Unpacking that in

Follow The Money

In this week's blog, we begin a series of pieces contextualising some of the reasoning behind how traditional development finance funding is assessed at a credit level. These pieces do not necessarily touch on our unique lending appetites but focus more on the generic sector-wide reasoning behind why we look

People

It was once mused that "Rome wasn't built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour." In this week's blog, we examine the issues surrounding the people power it will take to deliver on the UK's noble housebuilding endeavour, and attempt to extrapolate facts from the story, evading

Mountain

This week's blog examines the conflicting narratives waging war in the press around the UK housing challenge. Once again, we will refine and substantiate our ongoing argument that fintech platforms in our space are poised to present an enticing investment opportunity, with the UK property market offering a unique confluence

More Players

In this week's blog, we take a closer look at London's housing situation as reported via the online industry platform "Building", which has astutely picked up on the fact that London is facing a critical slowdown in new housing development, with new home starts plunging to a 16-year low. As

Stable

In this week's blog, after the wild theatre of the last few weeks in the markets, we return once again to the simple asset class that underpins our sector, the UK residential housing market. In a series of pieces, we will take a closer look at the three main aspects

Are We Switzerland?

As the dust settles on the opening salvo of the great trade war, one thing has become very apparent: any promise of a Schlieffen plan for instantaneous global trade harmony, the fair-weather strategy of "the war will be over by Christmas" executed by the fast deal-making of generals and shrouded

Hotel California

The art of writing an entertaining and engaging composition is often mired in the difficulty of crafting an interesting subject matter; however, in extraordinary times such as these, it's less about provoking thought and more about trying to capture a fleeting one. The news cycle, moving at a blistering pace

This Land is Your Land

In this week's blog, we continue to examine some of our clients' issues and attempt to examine the much-debated and much-questioned issue of UK land banking. The acquisition of available land to build on affects our sector's clients, their entry into the market, and their ability to execute affordable schemes.

Partners

On Thursday, 20 March, Housing Minister Matt Pennycook took to the stage at Homes England’s agency-wide Town Hall meeting to address the vital role the agency is playing and to recognise their achievements and ambitions in the housing sector. One of the points of note was their continued collaborative