The Return: Property & Investment Podcast

Send us a Text In this episode, the podcasting roles were reversed. Erica Sosna interviewed Anna Clare Harper, Host of The Return and Co-Founder of GreenResi. Anna says, 'I was lucky to be invited on The Career Equation, hosted by Erica Sosna - career coach and Good Housekeeping’s in-house career expert.  The format is that each guest brings a career challenge they are facing and Erica helps...

Send us a Text Andy Rothery, Head of Europe for Real Foundations / Former Head of Deloitte Real Estate and Maya the Robot joined Anna Clare Harper for this episode of The Return. ‘AI will replace us.’ No. AI will scale us. AI will free us. AI will sharpen us. To become a high-performing, high-growth real estate business, you embrace it all.  → Automate what slows you down - like messy bank reconci...

Send us a Text 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. Wast...

Send us a Text 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...

Send us a Text 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 so...

Send us a Text 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...

Send us a Text 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 wh...

Send us a Text 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. Top...

Send us a Text 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...

Send us a Text 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...

Send us a Text 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 v...

Send us a Text 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 $3...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper chatted with ex-Silicon Valley multi-national real estate investor John Corey about how real estate investors can improve processes. John is an ex-Silicon Valley multi-national real estate investor with 30 years experience, and a specialist in structured finance and legal capital raising for real estate. Topics include:  How can processes be used to shift away from...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper chatted with her brilliant mentor, John Corey, an ex-Silicon Valley multi-national real estate investor with 30 years experience and a specialist in structured finance and legal capital raising for real estate. The episode covers: Why get or be a mentor, and how to get the most out of the relationship What are the rules around using ‘OPM’ (other people’s money)  Ho...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper chatted to Emily Hamilton, Chief Sustainability Officer at Savills Investment Management about how to create a career you love in sustainable investment management in real estate.  We covered: What a Chief Sustainability Officer is, and also what Investment Management actually means - in words my mum can understand The importance of networks - speaking to others in...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper recently chatted on the podcast with Kate Faulkner OBE, one of the UK’s leading property experts, the founder of free consumer education site Propertychecklists, The Home Buying and Selling Council and The Lettings Industry Council - which is how Anna met her. Kate has worked with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government and regularly features on BB...

Send us a Text Adam Lawrence is the Founder of Propenomix, which has many thousands of subscribers across platforms who are keen to explore the economics of property. He’s been involved in over 700 UK property deals in the past decade, using 8 figures of joint venture funding and retaining the vast majority. He co-owns multiple investment and asset management companies that provide end-to-end serv...

Send us a Text Damien Fogg is a Chief Financial Officer, chartered Building Surveyor, CFO, ex-Financial Advisor and the Author of two amazon best seller books on real estate and investment. In this episode, Damien joins Anna Clare Harper to discuss what you need to know but were afraid to ask about investing for the future and paying less tax. Damien has helped a wide range of clients, from people...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper is joined by Kia Commodore, who founded financial education platform Pennies to Pounds at the age of 21, when she realised there was a major gap in her own knowledge: money matters. Kia has since grown a significant social following and worked with the likes of Barclays, Natwest, Santander and Legal and General, the BBC and the Financial Times on her mission to dem...

Send us a Text Ann-Marie Atkins is a Managing Partner and award-winning Financial Planner at Evelyn Partners. She joined Anna Clare Harper on the podcast as part of this series on ‘How to make the most of your money’ sponsored by Cohort Invest , to discuss the things you need to know but were afraid to ask about inheritance. We covered topics including: What exemptions are available for Inheritanc...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper spoke to Allen Chilten, Global Head of Capital Formation at the £750bn Schroders Capital, previously Head of Funds at Patrizia. This episode covers topics including:  What makes a best-in-class ‘living’ platform?  What kind of returns do investors expect from Living? How do returns from different UK Living strategies compare with each another, and other geographies...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper chatted with Grainne Gilmore, Director of Research & Insights at real assets advisory firm Cluttons about what digital connectivity means for real asset operators, ESG targets and homeowners. This episode covers: What digital connectivity actually is, from phone masts to broadband capacity. Why capacity and speed are so important, for example playing a critical...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper chatted with Elizabeth Froude, Group Chief Executive of Platform Housing Group, one of the largest Housing Associations in the Midlands with 49,000 homes as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum). Topics include: How to improve the quality and green credentials of Social Housing. How to attract institutional capital to...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper spoke to Gemma Bourne, Managing Director at Better Society Capital (formerly Big Society Capital) as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum) about Impact Investing. Highlights include: Where the UK’s leading social impact investor gets its capital from, including dormant bank accounts. What other organisations can learn...

Send us a Text Anna Clare Harper chatted to Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Houseful which is the Business to Business part of Zoopla.  They discussed what’s happening in the UK Rental Market, with highlights including: Rent growth - at its lowest for 30 months The supply-demand imbalance - which is still over 2 x pre-pandemic levels  What investor opportunities exist in the current market...