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Helen Gordon, CEO of Grainger PLC, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord joined Anna Clare Harper for this episode of The Return.

What people think you should do:

• Take a huge mortgage.
• Own a home ASAP.
• Consider your home to be your main ‘investment’.
• Spend the bulk of your money on your home.

Or, you could:

• Enjoy living in a much nicer place than you could afford to buy.
• Waste less time on property maintenance.
• Enjoy the flexibility, and move when you want to (not after 3 x sale fall throughs).
• Make informed investment decisions suited to your age and stage of life.

Spending all your money on a home doesn’t necessarily give you financial freedom.

Being strategic about your property (and other) investments will. 

Anna spoke to Helen Gordon, CEO of Grainger PLC, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord about:

→ The benefits of renting over buying for many of their customers.

→ Misalignment of incentives in rental property.

→ How to enjoy a career in real estate and investment.

Guest website: https://corporate.graingerplc.co.uk/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper spoke with Aubrey Adams OBE, Chair of Tritax Big Box REIT (FTSE 250), Former Chair of L&Q (105,000 homes) and Former CEO of Savills about building trust and how housing gets funded.

The episode covers:

→ How to fund and scale Housing Associations 

(Including cash flow, bonds, grant etc).

→ How real estate Boards can build trust.

→ Where public housing providers should take risk.

Guest website: https://www.tritaxbigbox.co.uk/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper spoke to Guy Horne, CEO of HSPG, a real estate company that acquires, manages and develops residential property, in particular Affordable housing.

This episode includes:

• What are the key differences between affordable, Affordable, social, and supported housing, in words my mum can understand?
• What are the hottest strategies for Living Sector investors seeking to solve the homelessness crisis, including place-based portfolios?
• What impact is grant funding having on what investment strategies work?
• What Guy’s most recommended resource is.

Guest website: http://www.hspg.co.uk
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-horne-b6646722/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper chatted with Gus Wiseman, Head of Investor Relations for the UK Government’s Office for Investment about: 

• What international capital thinks about UK housing vs. Europe vs. the US.
• How UK real estate platforms can position themselves to secure investment from global pension funds.
• Why self-deprecation is doing UK Plc no favours - and what we can do about it.

Guest website: http://great.gov.uk
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guswiseman/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper chatted with John German, Managing Director Alternative Investments at Invesco Real Estate about the differences between UK and European Living Sector Investment, with a special focus on Affordable Housing. 

This episode is brilliant for anybody new to this sector as John is an expert at navigating this sometimes complex sector. 

It covered:

• Who’s who and what’s what in Living Sector investment
• What different investors look for: Income vs Total Return (including capital growth)
• The differences between UK living sectors and other living sectors internationally in terms of scale, maturity and return expectations
• The significance of the UK’s regulatory framework for affordable housing, meaning Affordable housing needs to be provided by Registered Providers
• What premium international investors need to make on Living Sector investments, to justify currency risk.

Guest website: https://www.invesco.com/us/en/strategies/alternatives/real-estate.html
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-german-2437573b/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper chatted to Phil Clark, NED at Pinnacle Group (70,000 UK homes); Thriving Investments, part of Places for People; Chair of Pinnacle Investments (a partner of ours); Executive Chair at Wellcome Trust’s Genome Campus; and Investment Committee NED at UCL and PIC.

They discussed what role institutional investors play in the UK Living Sector, and how to become a NED.

Topics include the match between institutions and social/affordable housing, including:
- Scale – Housing Associations are some of the UK’s largest landlords, with an average of 2,801 homes each (and many far bigger).
- Income growth – Typically offering some protection against inflation.
- Attractive yields – Standing stock can generate 4-5% returns.
- Social impact – Many institutions actively seek investments that deliver real-world benefits, and housing is a tangible way to meet urgent needs.

Phil explained what role institutions can play in solving the crisis of affordable (and Affordable) housing, investing through:
 - Debt – Lending to Housing Associations, in the same way they would allocate capital to other bond investments.
- Equity – Investing in the end product.

Guest website: https://wellcome.org/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-clark-8761ba26/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper chatted to Ann-Marie Atkins, a Managing Partner and award-winning Financial Planner at Evelyn Partners, about what you need to know about investing.

Disclaimer and spoiler alert - there’s no actual investment tips or investment advice, the game-changing advice is about TAX and INFLATION (and booking a Finance Date with yourself).

Some snippets from Ann-Marie:

• Want to double your money in the next 10 years?? You can, if you invest at 7.2% interest (a version of this is known elsewhere as the Rule of 72)
• If you do one thing, think about tax first because it will have the greatest impact on your net returns - for example ISAs, SIPPs, Lifetime ISAs. If you haven’t yet, now is a great time before the end of the tax year. 
• How much you should be contributing to your pension each year.

Anna shared some of her thoughts including:

• 'Something I’ve seen as I’m spending more time in the US is that there’s a much greater acceptance of mistakes. Business founders are celebrated for trying as well as for succeeding; there’s less shame around learning by doing. Here in the UK, speaking for myself, I was brought up to be scared of making mistakes with money - and the cost of that fear is huge - both for individuals and for our economy!
• Booking a monthly finance date with myself is something I find really helpful, and having a process and plan to follow.
• Some comments from listeners - for example, one very successful listener shared: “I’m just crap at this stuff. I put a reminder in my calendar to sort out my ISA or read up on how to allocate it, and then I keep postponing the calendar invite.” and we shared some nuggets about how to make this easier…'

Guest website: https://www.evelyn.com/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annmariebanks/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper chatted to Rob Beiley, a Partner at law firm Trowers & Hamlins with over 20 years of experience in the affordable housing sector.

Rob advises housing associations, local authorities, developers and institutional investors on topics including corporate governance, housing finance, development and structuring.

He’s also a board member of the Housing & Finance Institute, Chair of the British Property Federation's Affordable Housing group and a contributor to Inside Housing and the BBC on topics like council-led housing initiatives and the rise of local authority housing companies.

We covered:

• What are the different types of Social Housing and who is involved in delivering it.
• A potted history of Social Housing, including large-scale stock transfers and the growth of the Housing Association sector under the Conservatives and New Labour administrations in the 1990s and the early 2000s.
• How investment in Social Housing has evolved over the years, and what kind of returns investors can expect.

Guest website: https://www.trowers.com/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-beiley-8a906944/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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How to deliver 1,000 homes per day with Alex Notay, internationally-recognised expert in housing, placemaking and ESG and Anna Clare Harper.

The brilliant Alex Notay succeeded Dame Kate Barker as Chair of the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission and was previously Placemaking and Investment Director at Thriving Investments (formerly PfP Capital). 

There, she facilitated a £390m joint venture with the Housing Growth Partnership and the acquisition of the award-winning sustainable developer Igloo Regeneration, where she also served as a board member.

Alex is one of the most knowledgeable, practical people I know in housing, so it was a great joy to record this - we talked: 

• The Reality of Housing Targets - what’s needed to achieve them? 
• Why it makes sense to treat housing as infrastructure
• The challenge of communicating complicated ideas simply
• The significance of language around housing… Our self-built barrier to entry to the industry, where we talk about #housing when referring to social housing, #residential for private investment, #living for institutional investment, #property for individuals, #realestate for the American market #builtenvironment in relation to planning and development, and so on.

Read the Radix Paper here: https://radixuk.org/papers/beyond-the-permacrisis-delivering-1000-homes-per-day/

Guest website: https://radixuk.org/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandranotayparr/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Anna Clare Harper chatted to Bella Peacock, Senior Managing Director – Investment Management and Operations Europe, at Greystar about how to create a career you love in Residential Property Management.

Greystar is one of the largest property managers globally with over 1m+ Units and Beds under management, over $78bn+ assets under management and a development track record of circa $36bn.

We covered:

• Career forks in the road - and how an early decision to try something that sounds interesting can create your future if you decide to follow the thread 
• How to navigate the complexities of working in a big global business
• How to stay focused in a world full of information and ideas - and how to stay positive in a challenging market

Guest website: https://www.greystar.com/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bella-peacock-5a289360/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/