The Return: Property & Investment Podcast

Send us a Text I had the pleasure of interviewing Gráinne Gilmore, Head of Research at Zoopla, following the release of their UK Rental Market Report to discuss what’s really happening in the UK rental market. Previously an award-winning financial and economics journalist at The Times newspaper in London, and Head of Residential Research at Knight Frank, Gráinne is often interviewed by the media o...

Send us a Text I had a fascinating discussion with the Head of Real Estate at leading investment bank, Goodbody, Colm Lauder. Colm is a leading authority on listed real estate. Since graduating with a MPhil in Real Estate Finance at Cambridge, Colm became the youngest Vice-President in the UK at MSCI in 2013. He was ranked #1 Real Estate Analyst in Ireland (Extel) in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In this e...

Send us a Text In this episode, Toby Wilde and Anna Clare Harper discuss the common myths around how and whether proptech can solve housing market problems. Toby shared his controversial opinions on the major issues in the industry including the greenbelt, Airbnb and P2P lending. Toby is a multi-time Proptech Founder whose experience includes scaling Sprift, currently the fastest growing property...

Send us a Text In this episode, Gavriel Merkado, CEO and Founder of leading residential property data and analytics company REalyse and Anna Clare Harper discuss the ‘myth’ of ‘material uncertainty’. What material uncertainty actually means, what the implications are for investors trying to assess a deal, and the real reason banks are cautious to lend when a valuation contains this clause. A forme...

Send us a Text In this episode, Mike Bristow, Founder of the UK’s leading property peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, Crowdproperty, and Anna Clare Harper discuss why high rates don’t always mean high risk when it comes to property lending, and how peer-to-peer (P2P) is disrupting traditional bank finance. As a registered chartered accountant, Mike also sits on the investment committee of propte...

Send us a Text In this episode, Guy Harrington, Founder of Glenhawk, one of the fastest growing property lenders in the UK, dispels common myths and misconceptions around short term ‘bridging’ property finance. Glenhawk has lent over £115m, secured £160m finance from JP Morgan, and is on track for its target £500m loan portfolio. Highlights of this episode include: What’s really happening to lende...

Send us a Text I had the chance to discuss the truth about hiring in real estate with Louisa Dickens, co-founder of LMRE, a leading global proptech recruitment business helping startups scale and corporates find new talent. As a UK PropTech Association board member, Louisa is well-placed to understand what both proptech businesses and candidates expect from each other during the recruitment proces...

Send us a Text *What works and what doesn't in this complex UK residential property market? Part #2* Panel discussion with one of the UK’s top planning lawyers, Martha Grekos, and Editor of the leading property investor magazine, Property Investor News, Richard Bowser, marking the paperback launch of Anna Clare Harper's book, Strategic Property Investing: What works and what doesn’t in a...

Send us a Text Marking the launch and promo offer for Anna’s book, Strategic Property Investing: What works and what doesn’t in a complex UK residential property market - bit.ly/strategicpropertyinvesting - Panel discussion with Melanie Bien, award-winning PR specialist, former Personal Finance Editor of the Independent on Sunday, and author of four best-selling property 'for dummies' bo...

Send us a Text Data has been described as more valuable than oil. But not all data is created equally. Huge risks arise if you don’t have the right data, and you don’t use it correctly in property investment. So how do you get it right, at a time when data collection seems topical, controversial and indeed essential for modern businesses? Gavriel Merkado, CEO and Founder of REalyse, leading UK rea...

Send us a Text In this episode, Ranjan Bhattacharya and Anna Clare Harper weigh up the challenges and opportunities for investors following the impact of coronavirus on the property market, and discuss how to survive both long- and short-term by shoring up your position, prioritising cashflow and knowing the right strategies to deploy. Property entrepreneur and investor Ranjan is a well-known pers...

Send us a Text In this episode, Simon Hughes, Co-Founder of leading real estate innovation consultant, Jell Consulting and thought leadership and research business Liquid Real Estate Innovation, discusses shaping the future of real estate through innovation with Anna Clare Harper. Simon has an extensive track record of working with board level executives at publicly-listed and private equity-backe...

Send us a Text In this episode, Taylor Wescoatt, Founder of leading PropTech venture capital firm Concrete and Anna Clare Harper discuss analysing risk and reward, what venture capitalists look for, and the importance of understanding how to solve customer problems through new PropTech ventures. Taylor brings his User Experience (UX) and Product Development experience with major brands such as eBa...

Send us a Text Value investing specialist, author and acclaimed researcher Mallika Paulraj and Anna Clare Harper discuss how the school of thought so commonly associated with Benjamin Graham, then Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger et al really applies in the property world. Mallika shares top tips from a global investment and research career, from checklists to use before you invest, to understanding...

Send us a Text In this episode, leading investment specialist Rebekah Tobias and Anna Clare Harper discuss risk, reward, diversity and how capital is really allocated by financial institutions including high net worth investors, private equity houses, family offices and pension funds. Formerly a Partner at global real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield, an Investment Director at CBRE and a...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna Clare Harper is joined by leading smart building technology business Metrikus' CEO Gary Cottle (previously a global MD / Chairman at Nomura / RBS) and COO Michael Grant to discuss how the digitisation of buildings can increase well-being and transform profits for property investors. The episode includes how real-time data capture can enable smarter decisio...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna Clare Harper and Vadim Toader discuss Artificial Intelligence as a tool for forecasting house price growth and making better lending decisions. Vadim is an Entrepreneur First alumnus and Forbes ‘30 under 30’ listed Proptech Founder with a  first-class Masters degree from Oxford in Engineering, Economics and Management. He co-founded the Savills-backed startup a...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna Clare Harper and Ed Mead FRICS discuss how traditional estate agency needs to evolve, and how property viewing service Viewber is shaking up the process of buying, selling and letting residential property through what has been described as ‘the Uber of property viewings’. Ed is a high-profile former London agent with 37 years’ experience. He is also a Non-Execu...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna and Lucian discuss how the Prime and Mainstream UK residential markets have been affected by recent change and uncertainty. They look at the data Savills uses to gain market insight and what the future holds for property investors. Lucian also shares some great advice for private investors and provides context to current fragile market sentiment. Highlights inc...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna and Mike discuss how P2P lending is supporting small and medium-sized developers to meet the UK’s housing needs.  Mike shares his thoughts on how quality data plus human expertise can inform better decision making by lenders and explains why Alternative Finance will simply become mainstream finance over the next few years. Highlights include: How peer-to-peer l...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna Clare Harper finds out about construction apprenticeships in London with Paul Ruddick, Co-founder of K10, London’s largest construction-specific Apprenticeship Training Programme (ATA). Anna and Paul are joined by Peter Bannister, Senior Apprenticeship Programme Manager and George, an apprentice Site Manager on the scheme.  Anna and Paul discuss why apprentices...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna and Ben discuss OakNorth’s approach to lending and how they use a combination of data-driven and human decision-making processes. They look at how challenger banks are addressing the finance issues experienced by property investors and developers and why OakNorth’s loan book currently stands at £2bn and rising, with continuing strong demand. Ben also shares som...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna Clare Harper  finds out how interior design can increase Return On Investment for  developers, investors, in fact anyone selling or renting a property,  with the Founder of Award-winning London Design Studio, Anouska Tamony  Designs. Anna and Anouska explore why interior  design is important, especially in a stagnating market. They also cover  the importance of...

Send us a Text In this episode, Anna discusses how technology and theory can be used to make better investments, as well as leading multimillion-pound investment businesses whilst teaching at Oxford & Cambridge, with Professor Andrew Baum.   Andrew has combined an academic career including professorships at Oxford and Cambridge, with leading several multi-million-pound investment businesses. H...

Send us a Text The Return interviewed one of the world’s leading bloggers on dividend stocks, Ben Reynolds of www.suredividend.com, to talk long term, income-generating dividend growth investing. The interview includes: 8 rules for dividend investing How to find the right stocks to buy, and when to sell (rarely!) The importance of science over emotion in stock market investing for the long term Th...