The Return: Property & Investment Podcast

Send us a Text £39 billion is going into UK affordable housing. Sounds like a lot. But in practice, the estimated need is 145,000 affordable homes per year. This programme could deliver 30,000. That gap is the opportunity for investors. The default structure of investments has changed. It’s no longer just: → debt + government grant It’s now: → debt + equity + grant Private capital isn’t optional....

Send us a Text The share price of the biggest student accommodation provider fell 43% in 12 months - suggesting that confidence in the sector is starting to crack. But in the same period, £4.3 billion was invested into UK Purpose-Built Student Accommodation. So which number is telling the truth? Anna Clare Harper, Director at residential investment manager Pinnacle Investments (part of Hyde, one o...

Send us a Text Build-to-Rent was meant to fix Britain’s housing crisis. Then everything changed: Interest rates rose. Build costs jumped. New regulations hit. And suddenly, the pipeline slowed. That’s when Single-Family Housing stepped in. In just 3 years, investment grew from £544M to £3.17B. So what’s really happening here? A long-term shift… or investors chasing the next shiny trend? If you’re...

Send us a Text The Return - Format Update A quick note from Anna on what is changing and why. After putting a question out to listeners on LinkedIn, a few clear themes came back - so we’re making changes.  From next month, The Return becomes a monthly, research-led series. Each episode will distill the key insights around a sector, strategy or market shift - anchored in reports and data from leadi...

Send us a Text Most property developments run late, over budget, or both. Not because developers are lazy. Because they’re running projects without systems. Anjuim Moied approached development differently. Before property, he ran businesses. So when he started developing sites, he treated them the same way: With systems. → A clearly mapped critical path → Project management databases → Software tr...

Send us a Text If you're a developer trying to get homes built right now, you're stuck between two impossible choices: Pay what the landowner needs and lose money on the build. Or offer what the numbers say you can afford - and watch the deal die. Traditional deals are stalling everywhere. Finance and build costs are too high, sales are too slow, and the gap between what a developer can...

Send us a Text I just interviewed a Former Housing Minister  And he didn’t hold back.  UK housing policy generates headlines daily.  For serious UK housing investors and developers, the challenge isn’t keeping up with announcements. It’s knowing which policy signals genuinely matter over the next five to ten years. Lord Gavin Barwell joined the podcast to cut through the noise around UK housing po...

Send us a Text I had to be on my best behaviour for this - interviewing my boss. Andy Hulme is CEO of The Hyde Group  One of the largest UK Housing Associations With 125,000 homes (Also my employer) He’s also a former Group MD at Lloyds Where he helped launch Help to Buy. No pressure, then. We covered:  - What public-private housing partnerships actually are  - Why housing partnerships fail - desp...

Send us a Text Even if the land was free, many property deals don’t stack. Zombie pricing. Rising costs. More regulations. I asked Nicola Haigh, Head of Real Estate & Housing, Lloyds. Who’s served 10,000+ real estate borrowers. How can developers survive and thrive in the 2020s? She shared 5 things bankable developers Lloyds work with do, including: 1. Keep a cash buffer → Don’t borrow the max...

Send us a Text Solving the housing crisis isn’t just about building more. It’s about the right homes, in the right places, for the people who need them most. The sharpest edge of that challenge? Supported housing - for people with learning and physical disabilities, mental health needs and other vulnerabilities.  It’s vital - but complex. It demands real care. And let’s be honest: some players are...

Send us a Text I loved recording a no-fluff episode of The Return  With Richard Donnell at Zoopla (Source of the best insights in the industry.) The headline? → Stop investing like it’s 2021. → Start investing like it’s 2026. We covered what 2025 changes mean for 2026 investors. Then discussed 2026 ‘must-dos’, including: Re-underwrite your portfolio. Assume “normal” rent growth (2-3%). Stress test...

Send us a Text 99% of real estate investors say the model tells the truth. But in practice, the data is messy. And the herd is loud. 3 weeks ago, I got to interview a real estate finance hero of mine: Colin Lizieri - Professor of Real Estate Finance  At the university of Cambridge. And a global authority on how markets really price risk. In 20 minutes, we dug into: → Signal vs noise Why real estat...

Send us a Text Most housing schemes don’t stack in this market.  Those that do get three things right. On the latest episode of The Return, Andy Garnett (CEO, Breck Homes) and Dale Parkinson (Lloyds Bank) shared what they’re seeing on schemes that actually work: - Buy smart - not late Secure land before planning (e.g. through options), or buy at a genuine discount when the timing is right (e.g. ar...

Send us a Text It’s hard to make housing developments stack in today’s market. Build costs are up Policies are changing Planning is a dragging. So I asked Alex Notay - Chair of the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission and one of the most respected strategic voices in UK housing - what it really takes to deliver 1,000 homes per day. She shared the big lessons on the podcast, including: Treat housing a...

Send us a Text People say the housing market is broken. Homes England aims to fix it. It touches 1 in 4 new homes. I spoke to ex-CEO Peter Denton CBE. About how developers and housing providers  Use Homes England support to build more homes. We covered:  - What it is. Who it serves. How it helps. (From grants to Compulsory Purchase powers.)  - How to frame your ask for success. (Lead with the mark...

Send us a Text It's hard to scale in real estate  Without a big budget, expensive team or endless meetings. I asked Kelly Bream  A multi-time founder and ex-COO, Bidwells How she has grown multiple real estate businesses from local to national.  She shared the playbook for local to national growth on the podcast, including:  - People > platforms first. Hire complements (e.g. brand/marketin...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper is joined by Hayley Rees, Managing Director at £50bn+ Pension Insurance Corporation. In Anna’s words:  There’s lots of advice for private investors. Almost nothing on how big institutions back UK housing. Yet it’s a major growth area. So I asked Hayley (MD at £50bn+ insurer PIC) what actually works. We covered: How to choose investments: Compare returns to UK gover...

Send us a Text Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla joined Anna Clare Harper to share what the latest rental market data means for investors, and how to underwrite real estate deals with the right rent growth assumptions. Topics include: Rent growth has slowed - why and what next for UK rentals Underwriting rents to earnings, not history or inflation The most invest-able places (and EPC g...

Send us a Text 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...

Send us a Text 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 thi...

Send us a Text 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 mon...

Send us a Text 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 wi...

Send us a Text 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 econo...

Send us a Text 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 su...

Send us a Text 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 resid...