Is your property investment future proofed?

With this current climate of uncertainty, investors now more than ever need to ensure that their investments are built correctly and, more importantly, future proofed.

Ensuring that investors are protected in the current climate has never been more relevant. This is especially important when different parties have aligned interests but over different time frames e.g. banks, developers and investors.  Developers often exit after the scheme is completed, banks are happy as long as their finance is secure, but investors need the confidence that their future investment has longevity, is lettable and future proofed.

At HartDixon, we demonstrated an example of overcoming these complexities in one of our case studies: 120 Fenchurch Street, a £160m office build development creating 650,000 sqft of office, retail and leisure space in the heart of the City of London. We were responsible for the development appraisal and investment monitoring over the entire process – from the demolition of seven asbestos riddled existing buildings on the site through to construction and completion of the new development.

120 Fenchurch Street is striking, and a building of scale. The creation of the wonderful roof garden provided more green space – contributing to a big part of the City’s masterplan. The dichroic panels forming the cladding to the 8 storey crown, change colour as the sunlight hits from different angles. This transforms the building in colour with yellow stripes in the early morning sun to mauve by evening.

Having a significant part to play in such an outstanding development did not come without its challenges. Being an island site within the City with archaeological interest presented planning and logistical issues.  Add to this six substations in the site which needed to remain live and be relocated, along with NatWest remaining in occupation throughout the demolition and construction, it was an interesting scheme.

For our investor clients, we consider initial development appraisals crucial in protecting the investors’ future interests. This involves project appraisals and monitoring focused on reporting on costs, programme and quality, however, when acting for investors we focus on so much more including longevity, efficiency of future operation, legal commitments and future occupier agreements. Our skill in development appraisals and monitoring projects like this, combined with our knowledge of legal and technical requirements, gives our clients confidence.

We believe that one critical success factor of joint venture investments is to ensure all parties are aware of issues as soon as they occur, and of course, those which could affect their future investment or pre-let agreements.  For our team, investment monitoring is not just about cost and delivery, it is so much more.