…and with falling property prices where Dubai house prices are down 25 per cent (source Gulf Daily News) and property prices may fall up to 50 per cent (source Khaleej Times).

Is it time to consider an alternative?

1. Goldman Sachs: No longer an investment bank

2. Lehman Brothers: Bank collapses after 158 years of trading.

3. Merriyl Lynch: Bought out by Bank of America

4. Bear Stearns: Bought out by JP Morgan Chase

5. HBOS plc: Bought out by LLoyds TSB

Scala Land Group goes from strength to strength.

Scala Land Group offer a less volatile investment in these uncertain times. Land has consistently performed well against other forms of investment, so there has never been a better time to diversify your portfolio.

On the Duke of York’s website His Royal Highness’ responsibilities are detailed as:

“1. Maintaining strong government and commercial contacts and relationships in the UK and abroad in order to maximize opportunities for UK companies.

2. Delivering high-level access to British companies. Supporting UK projects and bids directly with Government lobbying overseas.

3. Marketing the UK, particularly in emerging markets such as India, China and ASEAN countries. This includes representing the UK at major trade fairs and conferences and delivering key note speeches on trade issues.

4. Hosting high-level trade conferences in the UK to showcase business opportunities in particular regions e.g. Abu Dhabi, Jordan and Vietnam.

5. Providing regular, direct feedback to business and government through UKTI and the CBI on business issues both in the UK and overseas.”

More information
More images of the Duke of York
The Duke of York’s website

David Rooke, the head of flood risk management at the Environment Agency, said: “People living in properties in low-lying exposed coastal areas along the south west, Wales and north-west England should make sure they monitor the situation.”

To remind you Scala land is never situated in flood plains.

Further Reading
To read the BBC News Report click here
Environment Agency flood warnings

Questions from the public such as ‘Is there an actual housing crisis?’ were put to a panel consisting of the following speakers:

Yvette Cooper MP – Minister for Housing
Steve Norris – Former mayoral candidate and Conservative MP
Neale Coleman – Director of Business Planning and Regeneration, Greater London Assembly
Nigel Hugill – Property developer
Sir Terry Farrell – World renowned architect
Rowan Moore – Director of the Architecture Foundation

Several key points were raised
Yvette Cooper stated:
- The need to speed up and improve the current planning system
- The importance of encouraging local authorities to build new homes by providing a £500 million incentive.
- A reiteration of the government target of 3 million homes by 2020, “…we have to make this possible…”

The Government have continually reaffirmed their commitment to build 3 million new homes by 2020. To achieve this they have identified the planning system needs to be more responsive, leading to a system which enables rather than deters development.

Further Reading
Inital Evening Standard article
Evening Standard follow up article (including video)
Councils Offered 500m House Building Incentive
Government leans on local authorities

They are proposing in a policy paper:

- To maintain the safeguarding of the best parts of the green belt

- Areas of less environmental importance should be built on, with preference of building ‘eco-homes’

This paper comes in response to Government plans to build 2 million homes on new land.

Further reading
To read an Evening Standard report click here
Daily Mail article ‘Boring’ green belt should make way…
Natural England website

A shortage of new-build homes and a increased demand due to changing demographics means that house prices have risen dramatically since the Labour government came to power in 1997. It could have been expected that such a steep increase in the house price index would have led to an increase in house building but construction has fallen steadily since the 1960s. The main reason for the reduction is that council house-building has virtually ceased since its 1960s heyday.

The government’s Office for National Statistics predicts that 233,000 new households a year will be looking for homes by 2016, but house building is currently running only at about 165,000 homes annually. Commenting on this, Kevin Williamson, chief executive of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, said “If we don’t meet the needs of our local communities we will have overcrowding and a failure to help people meet their aspirations.”
Ruth Kelly was expected to tell Conference that her department’s diagnosis is that councils are not working hard enough to find land for developers. That’s why this year’s Housing Green Paper set out a range of carrots and sticks for councils, such as:

- Housing grants rewarding councils identifying land for development
- The threat to overturn local authorities’ residential planning decisions
- Using more public sector land for development

“The combination of these measures ought to be effective,” said John Slaughter, head of external affairs at the Home Builders Federation. “It depends upon the government’s will to make the system work because it has not historically been so easy to deliver at a local level. The government needs to sort the problems out,” he added.

The other target of the government’s promised reforms are those house builders that hoard building land but do not build on it. Kelly is expected to announce that developers will be expected to start building within time limits, or risk losing planning permission. House builders, though, reject the accusation that they are sitting on land. “97% of sites are under construction within three months of receiving planning permission. We don’t see the need for this policy,” said Slaughter.

The final plank of the government’s housing strategy is to provide more ‘affordable’ housing –homes targeted at lower paid employees like nurses, council workers, transport staff and police officers, as well as those generally on lower pay levels.

The Green Paper set a target of 25,000 “shared ownership” homes to be built every year, backed by money from the government’s Housing Corporation. Under shared ownership schemes, the lower paid buy part of a property and a housing association, mortgage lender, or government agency owns the rest. However, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said, earlier this year, that these scheme cost £500m a year and are wasting money.

Despite this, the government has promised housing associations £8bn to build 180,000 “affordable” homes, with the rest of the money needed coming from the associations’ own resources. A National Housing Federation spokesman said “The government has set a target and the crucial thing is that the investment is there to back it up.” The housing associations also question whether £8bn (approximately £44,000 per home) will be enough to build this housing.

The message from experts seems to be that the governments measures have a chance of working, but don’t expect big changes short-term. “Current regional plans considerably undershoot the level of demand that we are forecasting,” said Williamson, of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit. “The fact that we are becoming more prosperous means that we are demanding new homes, or even second homes,” he added.

Scala’s presence in this major London exhibition proved to be hugely popular. Due to the avalanche of recent press concerning housing, and by helping clients diversify their portfolios away from turbulent markets – resulted in Scala’s busiest show ever!

In addition, this insightful article highlights that:

“mechanisms are needed to encourage smaller landowners to pool resources and build up “patient equity” investment in residential property”

To read the full article click here.