Robyn Hewson speaks to some of the winner's from this year's North West Residential Property Awards to hear how it feels to win and what 2025 holds for the industry.
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00:00Brilliant, so you've won Urban and City Living Developer of the Year. How does it feel to
00:14win?
00:15Absolutely awesome. It's such a great award for us. This is the award we've been waiting
00:18for for 15 years, 20 years. It's our 20th anniversary this year. I could not be prouder
00:24of the business.
00:25Oh, what perfect timing.
00:26Yeah.
00:27You've got schemes in towns like Stockport and Wigan. A few years ago, people might not
00:32have been looking at these towns the way they are now. How do you think City Heart is breathing
00:36new life into these towns?
00:38I think we're just putting a new energy, a new vibrancy into the city centre we're developing.
00:43Particularly with colleagues like AEW and a wider professional team. We're really creating
00:47some new enthusiasm, new energy, some new ideas into our development. Stockford Park
00:52is on site this year. It's amazing how that transforms Stockport off the back of the interchange
00:58that we completed last year, which is a ward wing in itself. I think having imaginative
01:03supply chain members, particularly AEW architects and others, is critical to helping us create
01:08and deliver our vision.
01:09AEW chose to sponsor this award tonight. Why was this one a special one for you?
01:15I think we're at a time now where we're all looking at our town centres. We're all looking
01:19at places we want to move to, where we need to live. We're looking at how we can bring
01:23new life, breathe new life into these places. We, AEW, we're doing work with you guys as well.
01:28We're looking at a number of schemes in Stockport. We've looked at schemes in Wigan. We're working
01:31in Bolton. It's so important. We, as a practice, very much believe in this and wanted to put our
01:37name up there with it. Very, very proud to be able to present it to you.
01:40Brilliant. What does 2025 hold for City Heart?
01:44Just more energy, bigger team, new development. We're working on a lot of exciting new schemes
01:50we can't wait to talk to everyone about, up and down the country, from London to south-east
01:55to south-west, north-west of England, into Scotland now as well. Really exciting times
02:01and couldn't be prouder of this award. Thank you.
02:04Yes, I'm Nick Russell from Salboy.
02:07I'm Kelly Armstrong from Salboy.
02:09I'm Kevin Ears from Salboy as well.
02:11Fantastic, and you've been part of building all the units, right? How does it feel to win?
02:15Yes, really excited. A lot of hard work's gone in from all the team and professionals
02:20and everyone, so yeah, really happy.
02:22Fantastic, and what do you think makes this development stand out compared to all the
02:26developments we've got going on?
02:27I think the main thing is just bringing the old grey two-listed arches back to life,
02:32doing something a bit different, bringing the immunity into that space,
02:35making something that's not really been done in Manchester before.
02:37And the immunity offer inside is incredible, isn't it?
02:40Oh yeah, it's lovely. The pool is absolutely sensational. I wish I kept one for myself,
02:44to be honest with you, but unfortunately.
02:47Fantastic, and what's coming up next for Salboy in 2025 or beyond?
02:51Well, we've got St Michael's, which is under construction now, obviously fully sold out,
02:55and then Bylux Phase 2 in planning at the moment, so fingers crossed we get that in February.
03:01So, we're Keep Moat North West. I'm Katie Dean, Land and Partnerships Manager.
03:05Peter Barlow, I'm the Regional Managing Director.
03:08John Osego is Head of Land and Partnerships.
03:11Fantastic, and you've just gone House Builder of the Year. Did you expect to win tonight?
03:15No!
03:15Absolutely not.
03:17But we are thrilled.
03:18We're thrilled.
03:19Absolutely here with the moon.
03:20And why do you think the judges picked you?
03:23We've been in this area for such a long time, and I think this is now true to all our legacy
03:31and our heritage of what we've done. Now we're getting recognised for it because we are coming
03:35back with a vengeance and doing some really good stuff.
03:38And how are you delivering the hopes of places that really need them?
03:42Well, we build for first-time, second-time buyers, so we go into the really nitty-gritty
03:47areas that nobody else wants to go to. Someone loved very difficult, challenging places,
03:53and we take a chance. We do lots of other things as well.
03:57We're a key partnership builder as well, one of the top 10 UK partnerships, and I think what we
04:01do is tend to be working closely with local authorities, do a lot of social value work,
04:07and working at sort of grassroots level, trying to get those kids at the sites that perhaps
04:13don't look at, we do.
04:15Are there any challenges that you've had to overcome with your cyber development?
04:19So many. Everything's a challenge. Land ownerships, planning, market conditions,
04:27the length of the project. Sometimes we do multi-phases. We've had changes of government,
04:32changes of planners, changes of market conditions through that, all of that as well. So yeah,
04:39nothing is easy, but God loves a try, right?
04:42Just keep adapting every day, haven't we?
04:44We just need some help with the planning system at the moment, just to free that up a little bit.
04:50And then what's next for Keepover?
04:53The future's bright. We're building, we're growing, we want to take over.
04:58To the miles.
04:59Yeah.
04:59To miles and back.
05:00Yeah, to miles and back. Yeah.
05:03Ascent Living are delighted to win Residential Operator of the Year.
05:07It's a credit to the team and the business. We've invested heavily in people, process,
05:14and delivered well for our clients. Loads are here tonight,
05:17a recent client of ours, to share this accolade, and we're absolutely delighted.
05:22Fantastic. And what's coming next for Ascent?
05:25Watch this space.
05:26Hi, I'm Chris Cullen, the fund manager for the homelessness theme at Residence,
05:30for the National Homelessness Property Fund, too.
05:33Hi, I'm Sam Berry, the property investment analyst for the National Homelessness Property Fund, too.
05:38And I'm Bryony Bronson. I work for Salix Homes, and I work with Residence on their housing fund.
05:45Fantastic. So what exactly is this project delivering? That's just what our social impact
05:49is.
05:50So what we do is we work with great quality housing partners like Salix Homes.
05:54We purchase and refurbish property, and then we let it to people who would otherwise be
06:00homeless at local housing allowances.
06:02Fantastic. And you're impacting a lot of people's lives here, aren't you?
06:05Yeah, there are lots of people that currently are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation,
06:09and what we provide is a route out of that, and so a place to call home,
06:13somewhere safe and secure that makes a difference.
06:15So if you're in temporary accommodation, you might not be able to send your children to
06:20school very easily. You might not have a permanent address to get a job.
06:23So if you can have somewhere that's your own home with your own front door, it makes a big
06:27difference.
06:28Fantastic. And what's the next steps for the project?
06:31So we're excited. We've just raised some more money, and we're deploying across the UK now.
06:35So we're working in Greater Manchester, we're working in Merseyside, and we're also working
06:39in London. So we're looking forward to kind of raising more money and making more of a
06:43difference to people's lives.
06:45I'm Guy Butler from Glenbrook.
06:47And you've just won our Outstanding Contribution of the Year Award alongside Ian tonight.
06:52How does it feel to win?
06:53Well, I'm a bit gutted Ian isn't here. He's disappeared off to Ireland to see his family,
06:58and so he's left me standing and holding the baby, but obviously very pleased to receive it.
07:03Fantastic. And what have some of your proudest achievements been over the last decade?
07:08We started from nothing, quite literally nothing, and we've been supported by amazing
07:13people the whole way. We've been very lucky. It's a very tough market at the moment,
07:17and it's heads down, and we're still succeeding.
07:21And you actually won Deal of the Year. I think it was our first
07:24residential property award that you might have heard us say earlier,
07:26and you've won Deal of the Year again tonight. So what was significant about tonight's deal?
07:31A lot of stamina, a lot of hard work, believing that we can get there,
07:34and a grit and determination really.
07:37And the first one that you won for in 2016 was the first institutionally funded
07:42BTR deal in the UK, was it? Is that right?
07:44It was. It was the first outside London. In 2015, September, we opened it, and it was huge.
07:51Nobody was developing in Liverpool then, and we were the only people pretty much
07:55able to deliver that sort of thing.
07:57Fantastic. And what a legacy you've created over the last 10 years.
07:59Thank you very much.
08:00So what's next for Glenbrook? What can we look forward to?
08:02Heads down and do the same thing. We've just put planning in for Whitworth Street
08:06in the centre of Manchester, and that's a 44-storey tower,
08:09so just carrying on what we've been doing.