Photo by Kay Williams/ Flickr

‘We need action now to help get Britain building towards growth, and independent economists estimate that diverting funds into a massive public sector programme to improve the energy efficiency of Britain’s existing 26 million homes would boost GDP by 0.2%, create 130,000 jobs and help the government meet its own targets for cutting carbon emissions,’ the letter says. ‘We also want ministers to rethink the unrealistic timeline for zero carbon homes, which was set back in 2006 before the economic slump. Our own survey of smaller housing developers found that the proposals to change Part L of the Building Regulations in October this year could add more than £3,500 to the cost of building a new house. This will discourage even more developers from building new homes, further exacerbating the desperate housing shortage and locking low and middle income buyers out of the market.’

The FMB also requested a VAT cut from 20% to 5% for home renovation and repairs, as British houses are old and deteriorating due to the fact that most homeowners cannot afford the repair costs.

‘Families are trapped in a vicious cycle, in which they can’t afford to move and planning red tape makes it harder to alter their homes to meet changing need. Cutting VAT on renovation and repair would give a shot in the arm to beleaguered builders, create jobs and encourage householders to make their homes more comfortable, affordable and energy efficient,’ the letter concludes.

FMB’s take on what measures the government should take was the result of new research that shows buying a new home could save a household almost £300 on energy costs. The report published by house builder Miller Homes compared newly built houses according to those built in the Victorian era and those dating back to the 1960s in what build materials of the time, and typical energy usages including lighting, cooking and heating are concerned. The conclusion was that energy savings for the newly built apartments amounted to almost £3,000 on the 1900s home and just over £2,000 compared to the 1960s property.

‘I would also urge home owners in older style properties to ensure their home is as efficient as it could be wherever possible by replacing any draughty windows, installing loft and cavity wall insulation and even making sure radiators have thermostatic valves on them,’ said Chris Endsor, chief executive of Miller Homes. ‘But for those in the market to move, the efficiency figures of new homes speak for themselves,’ he added.

The first transaction was completed in October 2012 and involved four projects from Poland’s key logistics markets previously held by a joint-venture between Panattoni and another investor and totaling 218,000 square meters of space. The second transaction took place in December 2012 and involved the sale of a portfolio including nine newly-built logistics assets spread across Poland and amounting to 184,000 square meters. This portfolio had been developed through a partnership with Pramerica Real Estate Investors, the European branch of the U.S.-based Prudential Financial, Inc.’s real estate investment management and advisory operation.

“We are extremely happy to see that, due to its fundamentals, the Polish industrial real estate sector continues to perform well and attracts property investments. Together with our partners we have delivered strategically located, great quality, modern industrial properties that generated interest from such a reputable investor as Blackstone. We are also happy that Blackstone acknowledged the quality of our management platform and decided to retain Panattoni as asset and property manager,” said Robert Dobrzycki, Managing Partner for Central Europe at Panattoni Europe.

“The sale of these assets crystalizes a successful joint venture with Panattoni and further confirms the ability of Pramerica to source and invest in select opportunities across Europe that deliver attractive returns to investors, especially on a risk adjusted basis,” added Ben Penaliggon, Director of European Funds at Pramerica.

LogiCor and its affiliates currently own 2.5 million square meters (26 million square feet) spread among 91 high-quality properties located in the UK, France and Poland. Their assets serve logistics and distribution needs of manufacturers, retailers and third-party logistics solutions providers.

“We are pleased to have been able to expand the reach of LogiCor into Poland, where the market for modern, efficient industrial properties continues to strengthen. We look forward to working with our tenants to support their growing needs for high-quality logistics and light industrial real estate,” stated Mo Barzegar, President and CEO of LogiCor Europe Ltd.

Image © freshidea – Fotolia.com

Investor number one: Gene

A down home country boy from north Georgia who is about as smart as they come. I selected Gene out of literally dozens of investors I could have chosen because Gene is one of the most successful investors that I’ve ever met, and has one of the more unusual investing strategies that you seldom hear about.

Gene told me this story himself during a casual visit to his office a few years back. Gene’s main strategy is keeping up with what state and local governments are planning to do, especially as it pertains to development of new projects.

Back in 1975 Gene was at a Department Of Transportation meeting when they decided to put an extension of an expressway system right through his small town. Through this public process, which anyone can attend, Gene discovered exactly where the new exits would be located for this expressway. Though the area was totally undeveloped, and at that time had virtually no value for immediate commercial use, Gene raised $86,000 and bought 100 acres surrounding the area where one of the planned exit ramps would be located.

During the ensuing years, Gene kept that land and paid very low property taxes, and waited for the expressway and the exit ramps to be built. It would be about 15 more years before the area became highly desirable for commercial use. But it eventually did. Today Gene prefers to offer 100 year leases to commercial clients, and has gas stations at this exit, restaurants, hotels and several other businesses, with land left over for new clients. If someone wants to buy an acre of this land, Gene’s asking price is $1,000,000 per acre. Not bad for an original investment of $860 per acre.

The main keys to his success are the ability to be very foresighted about what would happen in the future, and the patience to take advantage of it. In the years since that original purchase, Gene has duplicated this model many times over and owns a wide variety of commercial properties with tenants that include every one from mom and pop businesses to oil companies to fortune 500 retailers. He is a buy and hold guy all the way, and prefers to hold and lease rather than sell outright.

Investor number two: Mary

I had to get at least one of the ladies in here. I chose Mary because she too has a very unique storys as well as a creative approach to real estate investing.

Mary’s parents emigrated to the U.S. after barely surviving World War II in eastern Europe. After losing everything they had during the war, they arrived in the U.S. with nothing, to start a new life in America. Mary was born some years after their arrival in the U.S.

Today she is a highly successful real estate broker, who has her own realty company in addition to her investing activities. Mary owns apartments, buys and sells single family houses and has a typical investing business. But she did a deal once on a mobile home park that was very clever and something that you don’t hear about every day.

The mobile home park was one that had a reputation for drugs and trouble. The previous owners had allowed the park to run down, and because several of the tenants were involved with using and selling drugs, most of the better tenants had moved out, leaving the park half empty as well. But Mary is a bold investor who knows the real estate business inside and out. She saw something in that park that no other investor saw.

After closing on the park she promptly informed all of the current residents that there would be a crackdown on drugs and drug dealers. Using the legal tools at her disposal, she quickly rid the park of all those who had been identified as problem tenants or involved in drugs. Then she cleaned up the park to make it more desirable for future occupants.

Mary also had a creative idea up her sleeve that was truly a stroke of brilliance. While doing her due diligence on this park, she discovered that each of the individual mobile homes also had their own septic tank. Many communities of this type have several units sharing one tank, but in this case, they all had their own.

Because of this fact, Mary was able to get each of the units in the park rezoned as individual residences, with each lot partitioned into an individual parcel. As a result, Mary was able to offer the units for sale with owner financing. People could come in and buy their own unit instead of renting.

It worked like a charm and Mary sold the units off to owners instead of renting to tenants. The result was a higher cash flow per unit, while avoiding headaches and costs of maintaining the units. A run down, drug infested park was transformed into a major cash cow. Mary never stops learning, and considers all of the strategies that may be employed when looking at a potential investment.

In my next article, I’ll feature two more professional investors who have been wildly successful.

Donna S. Robinson is a real estate investor located in Atlanta, GA. Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults. Her facebook page is facebook.com/realtybizconsulting Her latest book, Basics Of Real Estate Investing” is now available on Amazon.com