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Riccardo Ianucci-Dawson, CEO of £50m Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Alto Software Group, joined Anna Clare Harper for this episode.

It’s hard to get real estate deals done in 2025.

With caution, fall-throughs and zombie pricing.

So some smart investors are buying real estate businesses.

Not just assets.

@Riccardo Ianucci-Dawson is CEO of Alto

A £50m ARR estate agency CRM powering 25,000 agents.

We discussed:

• How smart investors are growing in 2025
• Top leadership lessons from raising a daughter with autism
• What he has learned scaling and selling 3 businesses before age 35.

P.S. Thanks to Alto, sponsors of this mini-series of The Return.

Guest website: https://www.altosoftware.co.uk/ // bit.ly/offer-alto 

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riccardoid/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

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Martin Wolf CBE is Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times.

Described as “the most important economics commentator in the world.”

I had such fun recording this. 

Thank you for sending in your questions.

If you’re a real estate investor, policymaker or fellow economics nerd, this episode is for you.

We covered:

The costs and benefits of land/property taxes.

→ The right thing to do, but destabilising?

How house price increases don't create growth.

→ They transfer wealth from young buyers to older owners. 

Cities like London can't be torn down and re-built.

→ Investors must embrace retrofit, urban intensification and greenfield development around stations. 

Career advice:

→ “Choose something that stimulates you. If it bores you, you’ll be bad at it.”

Guest website: https://www.ft.com/martin-wolf

Guest Twitter: https://x.com/martinwolf_

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: greenresi.com 

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Anna Clare Harper joined Charlie Martin on his podcast, The Responsible Edge.

In Anna’s words:

There’s a £2.2 trillion UK housing opportunity 

Unlocked using clever automation and AI

But hiding in plain sight:

Existing private and social homes

That need upgrading quickly.

AI can help analyse portfolios 

To make fast, reliable decisions.

So analysing 10,000 homes takes hours, not months.

But, TBT - AI has its limits e.g. in construction.

I explored this with Charlie Martin on The Responsible Edge podcast.

As well as the commercial case for inclusion. 

This is a key theme in Charlie’s podcast.

It also underpins a new programme I am working on. 

Guest website: https://theresponsibleedge.com/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliekmartin/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: greenresi.com 

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Melanie Leech CBE, British Property Federation CEO joins Anna Clare Harper.

In Anna’s words:

‘35% of no new homes is still nothing.’

People love to blame planning for our housing crisis.

But it’s only half the story.

You also need to:

• Tackle construction cost inflation
• Manage skills and labour shortages
• Navigate new regulations (eg building safety, net zero)
• Make the numbers work with 35% ‘affordable’ requirements

I loved chatting with Melanie Leech CBE, Chief Executive of the British Property Federation, about the blockers and opportunities in real estate today.

Melanie is one of those rare leaders who instantly earns trust: diplomatic, clear and genuinely passionate about making things better - not just talking about it. 

Key takeaways include:

1. Policy stability matters as much as policy content.
2. Housing remains investable and is evolving fast. Those who understand new delivery and ownership models (e.g. for-profit RPs, JVs) will unlock huge opportunities. 
3. The new Building Safety Regime is a major bottleneck. Emerging leaders must understand how these rules affect delivery timelines and project viability.

Guest website: https://bpf.org.uk/about-us/board/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-leech-58053218/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: greenresi.com 

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David Smith, Economics Editor at the Sunday Times, Award-winning journalist and Author with Anna Clare Harper.

In Anna’s words:

The housing crisis isn’t just about supply.
 It’s about who owns what – and who pays for it.

In this episode, I spoke to David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times since 1989 – and a role model who first got me (and many others) interested in economics as a teenager.

We covered:

- Why 68% of property wealth is held by over-55s
  → creating intergenerational unfairness and a sticky housing market

 - What a reformed property tax system could look like
  → and why politicians are too scared to go there

 - Why the loss of Buy-to-Let as a ‘starter business’ model is especially bad for women
  → and how we can boost financial confidence and investment by closing the gender gap

Guest website: https://economicsuk.com/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-smith-71730325/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Tenants are happier than owners.

(and that’s not the only surprising truth about new builds).

I chatted Hannah Marsh, a co-founder of HomeViews, the biggest property review platform in the UK - dubbed the TripAdvisor for property - and recently acquired by Rightmove.

In this episode of the podcast, she shares what she learned scaling and selling two startups. 

She also shared the surprising results of data on Build to Rent from Rightmove and HomeViews, and what opportunities the result - including:

●     Why tenants rate their experience higher than owners - challenging the assumption that ownership = satisfaction.
 

●     The myth of sustainability - and which residents really care. Hint: it’s not the young, despite media headlines.
 

●     The features renters value most - but operators don’t promote - like security and repairs.
 

●     The branding blind spot (and opportunity) - only 56% of BTR residents know they live in a "Build to Rent" home.

Guest website: https://www.homeviews.com/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-marsh-32a82416/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Monica O'Neill is CEO of ENSO Advisors LLC. She was a Co-Founder at Tristan Capital Partners, and a Managing Director at AEW Europe. She joined Anna Clare Harper for this episode of The Return.

Monica has grown two multi-billion dollar real estate platforms and helped shape the US affordable housing system (via Low-Income Housing Tax Credit).

Now she’s doubling down on UK residential, especially affordable and supported housing.

In this episode, we discuss:

-       Why 2025 is a ‘vintage year’ for UK affordable and supported housing 

-       What the UK can learn from US affordable housing tax breaks

-       Why it’s so important to ask more questions - and ignore hype 

Her advice?

“If you can’t explain the risks out loud, you don’t understand it.”

Wire Wisdom https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wire-wisdom/id1797011168 

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-oneill-greenstrategies/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Richard Hyde, founder of Thinkhouse joined Anna Clare Harper for this episode of The Return. 

ThinkHouse is a brilliant, hand-selected library of housing insights.

Written by people who’ve been in the weeds.

So you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

→ Work smart, not hard.

This week on The Return, Anna spoke to Richard Hyde, founder of Thinkhouse

A library of 1,000+ reports on housing, policy and strategy.

Highlights:
  -  98% of homes we’ll live in by 2030 already exist → retrofit is key
  -  Land release is blocked by inertia, not intent
  -  Planning reform alone won’t fix viability
  -  Small builders + compliance tools = overlooked opportunity

Listen in to learn what’s working, what’s missing and where the real opportunities lie.

Guest website: https://www.thinkhouse.org.uk/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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In this episode, the podcasting roles were reversed. Erica Sosna interviewed Anna Clare Harper, Host of The Return and Co-Founder of GreenResi.

Anna says, 'I was lucky to be invited on The Career Equation, hosted by Erica Sosna - career coach and Good Housekeeping’s in-house career expert. 

The format is that each guest brings a career challenge they are facing and Erica helps them through it using her methodology. 

My challenge (at the time of recording - a few months ago now) was: should I focus on solving problems for individual investors (the backbone of the residential market, who I worked with on 300 deals, who I wrote for in the Telegraph etc) or institutions (whose interest in UK residential is growing, and who are my main clients now).

Erica did such a good job that this question hasn’t bothered me at all since recording, but I thought it was useful to share as, underneath it all, it’s a common problem we all have to navigate at some point: how to adapt to market changes.'

Guest website: The Career Equation®
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericasosna/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Andy Rothery, Head of Europe for Real Foundations / Former Head of Deloitte Real Estate and Maya the Robot joined Anna Clare Harper for this episode of The Return.

‘AI will replace us.’

No.

AI will scale us.
AI will free us.
AI will sharpen us.

To become a high-performing, high-growth real estate business, you embrace it all.

 → Automate what slows you down - like messy bank reconciliations
 → Focus your team on value-add work - like relationship-building.
 → Use robots to double your AUM - without hiring.

In the US, building custom real estate business robots is becoming the norm. 

In the UK, 99% don’t do it.

Find out how to double your Assets Under Management without hiring.

From Maya the Robot.

And Andy Rothery, Head of Europe for Real Foundations / Former Head of Deloitte Real Estate.
 

Maya the Robot created by https://www.sesame.com/

Guest website: http://www.realfoundations.net/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-rothery-a8209818/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/