If you have been to any development conferences over the last few years you will know that Build to Rent projects are gaining huge momentum across the UK. Over the last few years I have advised some of our country’s top large-scale developers on design approach within this sector and I am convinced that a meaningful impact can be made to ALL housing design and quality in general by working within this exciting new housing typology.
Renting apartments is not a new concept, but the fact that it has been managed so poorly, by private landlords and rent-hiking agents for so many years has made this niche an easy one to tackle and improve. What is more difficult is, instead of using BTR as a vehicle to make long-term profit off more flats, to use it as an opportunity to revolutionise and radically improve how people live their lives day in and day out.
Slow speeds of construction, planning restrictions and archaic mind-sets within the industry have made it difficult to innovate in the residential sphere of design. A much bigger transformation is already underway within commercial and hospitality sectors and we must make sure our homes, where we spend a majority of our time, do not get left behind in the 20th century.
Research indicates that increasingly the boundaries between residential and commercial spaces are being blurred. With self-employment on the rise in the UK, the home of today is a place of both work and leisure. According to a survey conducted by AXA, 64% of people believe that this trend is only going to increase in the future.
Not only that, but according to studies done by furnishings giant IKEA, many of us are seeking richer experiences beyond our 4 walls of traditional house meaning that ‘feeling at home’ can be experienced in multiple places in any given time. BTR’s response to this by integrating spaces where residents can come together as a community and integrate with each other is going to greatly improve well-being and combat social issues such as loneliness.
There is clearly an opportunity – but are we taking the necessary steps to seize the moment to find a creative and equally commercially intelligent solution, rather than just build more? If you are working on a residential development at the moment, as I am sure many in my network are, how satisfied are you that your projects are addressing the issues of your future residents/ neighbourhood/ the country’s housing crisis? It is up to all of us to ask the right questions, experiment and push boundaries and I believe BTR is the perfect platform to rethink how and where we choose to live.
