Residential Land

Residential Land is extremely proud to have won Landlord of the Year at the inaugural RESI Awards.

The RESI Awards, an extension of the Property Week RESI Conference, is the first event of its kind to recognise excellence in residential property. The awards evening was a huge success, with leading figures from the industry coming together to reward the achievements of those involved in all aspects of residential property.

Winning the Landlord of the Year is a great achievement for Residential Land, especially given the high calibre of the competition we faced from Dorrington, Howard de Walden Estate, Places for People, Williams Pears Group and Wellcome Trust.

We are delighted that our hard work, dedication, high level of management and customer service we provide to our tenants is being acknowledged.

Residential Land win RESI Award

The Event

Held at the InterContinental London on 15^th May 2012, the RESI Awards were hosted by sports presenter Clare Balding. The black tie dinner saw more than 500 people from the property community attend, and the evening managed to raise £6,400 for the industry charity, LandAid. To find out more about LandAid, visit www.landaid.org.

The Winners in full

• Property Manager of the Year (sponsored by Qube Global Software): Rendall and Rittner
• Letting Agency of the Year (sponsored by ARLA): Countrywide
• Residential Consultancy Practice of the Year (sponsored by Residential Land): Savills
• International Sales Agency of the Year (sponsored by Grosvenor): Jones
  Lang
  LaSalle
• UK Sales Agency of the Year (sponsored by Deverell Smith Recruitment): Knight
  Frank
• Newcomer of the Year (sponsored by Kay & Co): London
  Square
• Residential Financier of the Year (sponsored by Clearview Homes): Barclays
• Asset Manager of the Year (sponsored by JJ Homes): Grainger
• Development of the Year (sponsored by Knight Frank): Neo Bankside - Native Land & Grosvenor
• Deal of the Year (sponsored by Sage): Delancey and Qatari Diar’s acquisition of the Olympic Village
• Small Developer of the Year (sponsored by Jones Lang LaSalle): Native Land
• Large Developer of the Year (sponsored by CBRE) Berkeley Homes
• Landlord of the Year (sponsored by Roomservice by Cort): Residential Land
• Residential Personality of the Year (sponsored by Mainstay) Tony Pidgley

Residential Land is proud to support the Big Egg Hunt, a record-breaking egg hunt across Central London.

Over 200 uniquely crafted eggs, created by leading artists, designers, architects and jewellers were hidden across the capital. The egg hunt lasted six weeks with a staggering 12,773 people joining in the fun and breaking the Guinness World Records attempts for the most participants in an Egg Hunt. The winner is now the proud owner of the Diamond Jubilee egg worth £100,000.

All eggs were sold at auction and raised over £1 million for the charities Elephant Family and Action for Children. Elephant Family is a charity supporting Elephants, tigers, orangutans and countless other wildlife facing extinction with massive loss of habitat being their greatest threat. In the past 100 years, 90% of Asian elephants have disappeared. Action for children supports around 50,000 of the UK’s most vunerable and neglected children, providing clean clothes, regular meals, caring relationships and counselling for both them and their families.

Residential Land purchased 5 eggs during the auction donating in excess of £20,000 towards both of these truly amazing charities.

If you would like to make a donation or find out more about these charities please click on the links below:

www.elephantfamily.org

www.actionforchildren.org.uk

Residential Land are Prime Central London’s largest private landlord, specialists dealing in flats and houses for rent, property investment sales and acquisitions.  To view our latest rental properties click here www.residentialland.com

On 5^th March Residential Land attended the “Who’s Cooking Dinner” charity auction at the Four Seasons Hotel at Park Lane in aid of Leuka, a charity raising money to create a better future for patients with leukaemia. “Who’s Cooking Dinner” was founded in 1999 by Peter Gordon and Chris Corbin and raises money for treatment and research, specifically for the specialist leukaemia centre at Hammersmith Hospital, one of the world’s leading units for haematology.

On the evening, twenty top London chefs including Rainer Becker of Zuma, Tim Hughes of Scotts, Mark Edwards of Nobu and Tong Chee Hwee of Hakkasan came together to cook dinner for 200 diners. There were 20 tables with each chef creating their own four course meal for one table of 10. Each table was served by the restaurants maître d’ and wine waiter and after the meal each table had the chance to meet their chef.

The evening was a huge success and ended with an exceptional “auction of chefs”, where diners had the opportunity to bid for one of the culinary stars to cook dinner in their own home. Residential Land successfully bid for Mark Edwards of Nobu to cook a private meal for 10 people. “Who’s Cooking Dinner” has raised £3.7million since its first charity auction in 1999.

If you would like to make a donation please visit:

www.whoscookingdinner.com/donatewho’scooki.html or to find out more about Leuka please visit www.leuka.org.uk

Residential Land recently hosted a pre-event drinks reception for all of the finalists of the Property Week RESI Awards.

The actual awards evening is being held at the InterContinental Hotel London on Tuesday 15 May 2012, but as headline sponsors of the RESI Awards we wanted to host a pre-event drinks reception as an opportunity for fellow finalists and organisers to meet beforehand.

Fortunately the April showers didn’t stop people attending and guests were kept dry in the covered garden of our Mayfair head office. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and a great opportunity to meet industry colleagues.

Residential Land are proud to be part of the inaugural RESI Awards and we are looking forward to the Awards evening on the 15th May.

The Residential Land sponsored youth football team Whetstone Wanderers under 10s Cougars are doing very well this season!

This Sunday’s 1-0 away win, made sure the  Cougars went to the top of the league, with 3 games in hand - and they have also progressed to this year’s Semi-finals in the converted Spring Cup competition!

Having won the last 14 games in a row ( league and cup) and scoring some 69 goals and only conceding 4 goals the team is going from strength to strength.

As the season draws into the good weather the Cougars will be looking to catch up on their postponed games and secure the points to push them on to the title, and hopefully a place in the Spring Cup final.

Good luck to all our boys

Residential Land hosted a busy boat throughout MIPIM 2012 as participants came to talk to us about residential opportunities in prime central London.

MIPIM 2012 - The Residential Land boat was a popular place to visit

Mipim was still in relatively subdued mood with only 19,000 property people from across the world in attendance, and few signs of property world exuberance in contrast to pre 2008 years.

Nevertheless, Central London Residential Property was clearly one of the global property hot spots and with the recent alliance announced between Residential Land, Ivanhoe Cambridge and Apollo Global Real Estate Management, the Residential Land boat was a popular place to visit and there was a regular attendance of property bankers, solicitors, architects and agents.

The Residential Team was able to explain to its visitors that whilst existing blocks of flats remain a preferred option for purchase, the company is now looking at office to residential conversions, buying new flats off plan, and even looking to develop itself in joint venture with a builder/developer.

If you have any opportunities for us, contact our acquisition team here or email enquiries@residentialland.com

The notice below is for all Residential Land tenants regarding the Digital Switchover occuring in April 2012:

Dear Tenants,

As you may or may not be aware the United Kingdom is switching over from an analogue signal to a digital signal for televisions on the 4th April 2012.

The main priority for you as a Tenant unless you have Freeview/Satellite television is on the 4th and 18th April where you will be required to re-tune your televisions to receive the digital signal.

You will be pleased to know that Residential Land have already upgraded the communal aerial to your building as per the Landlord responsibilities so allowing you to receive the new digital picture.

There are a couple of points we would like to bring to your attention therefore allowing you an easy transfer over to the digital signal.  All Sky Satellite systems will automatically update themselves.  However if you have a non-digital television you will have to purchase a digital Freeview box which can be purchased from many high-street stores such as Argos, Comet, and all electrical/ television suppliers.

For further information please visit:
www.digitaltvnow.co.uk/digital-switchover.html

We are of the understanding that after the 18th April 2012 there may still be a few issuesdue to technical changes in the frequency which are beyond your landlord’s control; if you experience any issues please contact our recommended Television Repairman:

Satland Limited, please call Azi on 07944 441173 to arrange an appointment.

Call out charges:  £25.00 (within 7 days response call-out charge)

£40.00 (within 24 hours response call-out charge)

If the problem is found to be the Tenant’s liability (ie – with tenant’s own television set) then the Tenant will be responsible to pay.  If the liability is found to be within the Landlord’s responsibility we will then pay for the repair.

Residential Land have organised an email account where Tenants can send their switchover-specific queries to: switchover@residentialland.com and a response will be sent within 24hours.

We do hope this process runs smoothly and we will do all we can to help if there are any problems.

Richard Berridge, Sales & Acquisition Consultant at Residential Land recently commented on the 2012 Budget and how it is likely to effect Residential property in London:

The 2012 Budget is being touted as ‘fiscally neutral’  and it is clear the George Osborne is adhering to his deficit cutting plan and global  credit agencies placing Britain on a negative watch/outlook will have hardened his resolve in doing so.

It wasn’t the greatest budget for Prime Central London property owners as the Chancellor has bowed to pressure from within the coalition to ensure the ‘rich’ pay their ‘fair share’. This now means that residential properties valued at £2m and above will now attract SDLT at 7%.

Residential properties at this value level bought via a company structure will be subject to a 15% levy. The Budget report refers to ‘certain non- natural persons’ as an initial guide to their intentions, but the specifics are far from clear.  Since these ‘regulations’ came into effect on 21st  March, immediate tax planning is going to be entertaining…

Companies owning residential properties worth £2m+ may also be subject to an annual tax. Although this is subject to consultation and will not apply until April 2013. Again, the devil will be in the detail.

At Residential Land we believe these measures are aimed at individuals looking to avoid paying SDLT at prevailing  rates, and not bona fide property investment/development companies.  Therefore, we  are of the opinion that  the increase in SDLT announced by the Chancellor will not have any great impact on the residential investment industry or the  PRS.  In fact, were such measures be found to have a deleterious impact on our industry, it would be clearly counter –intuitive to current government policy of encouraging inward investment.

We’ll know more at the end of the month when the finance bill is published, but we’re not fretting about it.

A brief summary of the salient points:

• SDLT of 7%  was announced for residential properties over £2m from midnight today. Any such homes purchased through ‘certain non-natural’  corporate structure will be liable for 15% SDLT

• The Government will extend the capital gains tax regime to gains on the disposal of UK residential property and shares/interests in such property by non-residents.

• Individuals currently paying tax at the highest rate, 50%, will have that rate reduced to 45% in April 2013.

• The personal tax allowance will be raised to by £1,100 (13%) to £9,205 in April 2013.

• The current level of Corporation tax will be cut from 26% to 24%in April 2012 and will reduce to 22% in 2014.

• A new general anti-tax avoidance rule will be introduced.

• Companies are using the VAT rules that exempt the rental of land to avoid tax that their competitors are paying.  This  may have implications for both taxpaying funds and non-tax paying organisations such as charities and trusts

• Further Government support for £150m of tax increment financing to assist  councils in promoting  development towards delivering  3,000 new homes.

Property Week has announced the finalists for the RESI Awards which are being held at the InterContinental London on Tuesday 15 May 2012. From the 14 categories, Residential Land are thrilled to have been shortlisted for 2 of the awards - Deal of the Year and Landlord of the Year.

Our nomination for Deal of the year recognises our recent joint venture partnership with Apollo Global Real Estate Management and Ivanhoe Cambridge.

We are also delighted to be nominated for Landlord of the Year. Residential Land takes our responsibilities to our tenants very seriously, so we are proud to be recognised in the same category alongside other landlords such as Wellcome Trust and Williams Pears Group.

Residential Land CEO Bruce Ritchie has also been shortlisted for Personality of the Year against other industry leaders such as Tony Pidgley and Nick Candy.

The RESI Awards is the first event of its kind to recognise excellence in Residential Property and Residential Land is proud to be taking part, and in April we will be holding a pre-awards drinks reception for all of the finalist nominees.

To find out more about the RESI Awards, visit www.resievent.com/awards

A full list of the finalists is below:

Asset Manager of the Year

• ARIM
• Assettrust Housing
• Braemar Estates
• Grainger
• Grosvenor
• Young Group

Deal of the Year

• Berkeley Group buys One Blackfriars Road
• Delancey and Qatari Diar buy the Olympic Village
• Residential Land forms investment partnership seeded with four prime central London assets
  
• Reuben brothers buy Piccadilly Estate
• Grainger buys out Genesis from JV
• Varde takes over Crest Nicholson

Large Developer of the Year (More than 1,000 units)

• Berkeley
• Barratt Developments
• Galliard Homes
• Persimmon
• Redrow
• Taylor Wimpey

Small Developer of the Year (Less than 1,000 units)

• First Base
• Mount Anvil
• Native Land
• Oakmayne
• Telford Homes
• United House Developments

Development of the Year

• Highbury Gardens, First Base, HCA and Southern Housing Group
• Neo Bankside, Grosvenor and Native Land
• One Hyde Park, Project Grande (Guernsey)
• Park Hill, Sheffield, Urban Splash
• Royal Arsenal Riverside, Berkeley Group
• The Lancasters, Minerva and Northacre

Residential Financier of the Year

• Barclays
• Deutsche Bank
• Investec
• Pluto Finance
• Qatari Diar
• Santander

Newcomer of the Year

• Akelius
• Hill Residential
• Hearthstone Investments
• London Square
• Regal Homes
• Urban & Civic

Landlord of the Year

• Dorrington
• Howard de Walden Estate
• Places for People
• Residential Land
• Wellcome Trust
• Williams Pears Group

Residential Personality of the Year

• Bruce Ritchie
  
• Harry Handelsman
• Nick Candy
• Steve Morgan
• Tom Bloxham
• Tony Pidgley

Residential Consultancy Practice of the Year

• BNP Paribas Real Estate
• EA Shaw
• EC Harris
• Knight Frank
• Savills

Letting Agency of the Year

• Countrywide
• Savills
• Young Group

UK Sales Agency of the Year

• Assetz
• Beauchamp Estates (Mayfair Ltd)
• Countrywide
• Jones Lang LaSalle
• Knight Frank
• Savills

International Sales Agency of the Year

• Colliers International
• Jones Lang LaSalle
• Knight Frank
• Savills

Property Manager of the Year

• Atlantis Estates
• JJ Homes
• Mainstay
• OM Property Management
• Rendall and Rittner
• Savills

In February 2012, Residential Land was invited to attend The Black and White party, an annual dinner with money raised from ticket sales and a charity auction.

Lots had been generously donated from various sources, with 3-cellar worthy wines and a two night stay at the award winning and unique Tree House suites at Chewton Glen being amongst the lots. Residential Land, jointly with Dragon’s Den James Caan, successfully bid on Lot 16 “Challenge London’s most famous wiff waff artist at his own game”, a dinner hosted by Boris Johnson at London’s most unique venue – the venerable salmon smoker ‘Forman’s Fish Island’. Forman’s smokehouse is situated on the banks of the River Lea on Fish Island with unrivalled views of the Olympic Stadium. During the evening, Residential Land founder Bruce Ritchie, James Caan and Boris Johnson will do battle in a charity game of celebrity “wiff-waff” – makeshift table tennis.

Residential Land pledged in excess of £15,000 at this year’s charity dinner with funds going to Boris’s Mayoral Campaign.