I hope everyone had a great break over the summer. I spent some time away and am back refreshed and ready to go. I’ve already had a number of member meetings and there is a real “back to school” feeling, with a new Parliament, a new Government and a lot to go for.
AREF Conference Season
We may be in the middle of the Party Conference Season, but for AREF our Conference Season has just drawn to a close. In June we had our first post-pandemic Conference at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall (link). In September we have had two events closely following each other: the second FutureGen Annual Conference in Cambridge (link) and the Annual Dinner at the Savoy (link). All three events have received positive feedback from attendees.
Networking and learning are important elements of AREF’s service to its members, and I want to thank the whole team for the time and effort that has gone into organising these events. This is the first year that we have had such a rich schedule and we are looking forward to more next year.
I particularly want to thank Clare, ably backed up by Mel, who did the heavy lifting with regard to planning and organising all three events. I would also like to thank the members who sat on the various Committees planning the agendas and recruiting speakers. AREF is a collaboration between its members and the Executive team and the quality of these events is due to that collaboration.
Lastly I would like to thank the sponsors for all three events: Citco (Gold Sponsor) and Mills & Reeve (Silver Sponsor) for the Conference, Carey Olsen for the FutureGen Conference and JTC Group for the Annual Dinner. These events would not be possible without you and AREF and its members are very grateful.
For now, the summer and the AREF Conference season are over and we turn our attention to AREF’s other activities in research, policy and industry reputation.
Research
Since Rachel Portlock has joined us she has significantly enhanced our research activity. We are running two major projects at the moment.
The first focusses on DC investment into unlisted property, a crucial issue for our industry. I think it’s fair to say that this has proved trickier than we anticipated, but that’s the nature of research, and it’s important to get this right. The newsletter also highlights the findings (link to article) of a survey and roundtable event that explored the issue of DB pension scheme investment flows into UK real estate funds. Thanks to everyone who has supported our work and in particular to Simon Marx of Lothbury and Matt Abbott of LGIM for volunteering to chair sessions.
Our second major project is joint with the Investment Property Forum, revisiting “The Case for Property”, work originally done by Richard Ellis (of fond memory) in the 1990s at a time when property was becoming an accepted investment asset class alongside listed equities and fixed interest. At that time property was pretty much the only “alternative” asset class but now times have changed and real estate, as it has come to be called, most often sits in an institutional investor’s private markets allocation alongside infrastructure, private equity and private credit, against which we now have to compete. This work is based on more recent work by the IPF aimed at the IFA sector. The rationale for this work has come from demand expressed at conference sessions that I have attended this year, and from seeing the need during my time as an investment consultant.
Both of these projects are important to attracting investment into our sector, not only in support of our industry but also in support of the Government’s growth and housing agendas. We look forward to giving more details nearer publication for both projects.
Policy work
With a new Government in place, a new session of Parliament, and the need to educate and inform new Ministers and Select Committees, our policy work takes on increased importance.
There are three major issues facing our industry on which we have been engaged:
- sustainability and the transition to net zero;
- the problems in the planning system;
- the problems for illiquid investments of the transition from DB to DC pension funds in the UK.
Over the last few years we, alongside many other organisations, have made significant progress in ensuring that the regulation around sustainability works, not only in the UK but also in the EU.
We are collaborating with other trade bodies on the UK planning system, an issue which affects all developers of property and infrastructure, listed or unlisted.
Our particular focus in the immediate future will be on freeing up investment from UK corporate DC pension funds into real estate, in support of the Government’s growth and housing agendas. This is a systemic problem with no single solution and our recent budget submission to the Treasury outlines our proposals around DC platforms, pension fund scale, Collective DC, and underlying fund structure and regulation. We also refer to some related tax issues.
The industry has been trying to address the DC issue for over a decade now, and we have made some progress in helping various government departments and regulators to understand what the problems are, with constructive engagement with the FCA, MHCLG, Homes England, the Bank of England, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Treasury. Our focus now must be to move to solutions, which must be cross-departmental, and we will be looking to convene a number of cross-departmental discussions to help take things forward.
Industry Reputation
Alongside the other members of the Property Industry Alliance (BCO, BPF, CREFCE, IPF, RICS and ULI) AREF is engaged in a major initiative to address the UK real estate industry’s reputation. The initiative was started by Bill Hughes of LGIM, the PIA’s Chair, and, given its multi-year nature, involves not just the PIA CEOs but members from each organisation’s young professionals group, who have already shown great enthusiasm and creativity.
I and the team look forward to working with you in what should be an exciting and productive period for AREF and for our industry.
Author
