Scaling new heights

Buy right. Sit tight! WORDS: PRIYANKA MEHTA

The property market has faced stunted growth across the UK in the last ten years. Protracted political uncertainties around Brexit, an imbalance in the supplydemand and marginal houseprice growth has worried investors and developers across the board. Now, Boris Johnson’s resounding victory in the recent general election appears to have relieved some of these concerns for some property developers including those at the Nacropolis Group. Agents have now even coined a new phrase “the Boris Bounce”.

“General elections are now done and dusted. This bodes very well for everyone because we now have certainty around Brexit; that it will be done in due course and we are able to prepare ourselves accordingly”.

“We will now have our eyes on the kind of Brexit deal that is achieved with the EU especially with regards to securing the rights of the European workforce in this country. It is imperative that the government understands that the bulk of the workforce in the construction industry is from Eastern Europe, to prevent from any further turbulence in the construction market,” said Amar Pankhania, one of the directors of the Nacropolis Group. FROM FITZROVIA TO SLOUGH Nacropolis, an upscale group of property developers, prides itself for its residentialled developments based primarily in Central London, Greater London and the Home Counties. Founded in 2003, the company is the brainchild of Ravi Pankhania and is managed by brother Amar. Ravi takes a stronger interest in the construction aspect of the business, liaising with the architects, suppliers, and Ravi and Amar Pankhania shed their insight into how their journey in the property market changed from Central London to Greater London and the Home Counties, over the last decade.

Seated, Ravi Pankhania and standing Amar Pankhania

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1 Stanmore 2 Fitzrovia 3 Notting Hill 4 Hyde Park

consultants. Amar oversees the financial health of the business and supervises the core administrative services and believes in strong relationships with agents, banks and local authorities. Both brothers’ rise to success stemmed from the solid foundations put in place by their father Manoj Pankhania over 45 years ago with the inception of Parkview Homes. Manoj is now retired and acts on a consultancy basis guiding both brothers with his invaluable experience. Today, Nacropolis is known for converting under-utilized properties into boutique style prime residential projects.

Following the financial crisis of 2008-09 and collapse of property prices in Central London, the group carefully began forward planning in anticipation of what is now a completely different property market to that of a decade ago. Identifying the growing demand for affordable housing in Greater London, Nacropolis decided to position themselves in up and coming areas; Slough being one. A recent report by The Times states that property prices in Slough recorded a 73 per cent price growth; in an area where Nacropolis is now on the verge of completing its recent project, Hurricane Court.

“Fortunately, we were well versed in how the Central London market operated. The sales market completely tanked to such an extent that capital values were being written down by 20 to 30%. Investors and owneroccupiers alike left the market and a flotilla of vacant properties took up occupation on all Central London Estate agents’ windows. We managed to ride out this collapse by aligning with the burgeoning rental market and capitalising in on people who needed to reside in London but were not prepared to buy. London’s attractiveness as a global business hub meant that rental demand grew exceptionally quickly. Whilst riding out the storm using the aforementioned to our advantage we were making plans to change our modus operandi,” explains Ravi.

In London, Amar is particularly optimistic about up and coming areas such as Tottenham with the new stadium being an asset to the local community right from attracting the football and NFL fans to doubling up as a music venue. “One should not forget that there are plans for a Crossrail 2 , which if given the go ahead, would be hugely beneficial to Tottenham and the surrounding area.” In the meantime, Mayor of London’s initiatives in Acton, and the regeneration projects in the area make the West London catchment another investment hotspot for urban housing.

Although, the company today is rooted in residential-led development ever since its inception in 2003, it has also explored the sector of mixed-use commercial developments. And now the group is looking to expand its footprint into other areas such as student accommodation, hospitality and revitalised sectors such as the industrial asset class.

“Research across the spectrum has indicated that industrial prices per square foot have rocketed through the roof. It is an asset class and an area we are looking into as part of our portfolio,” Amar says. However, he eyes a bigger potential in the student accommodation market as a record number of students enter the country on a year-on-year basis.

A recent survey of the student accommodation market conducted by Cushman & Wakefield estimated that as of October 2019, there were nearly 700,000 purpose built student accommodations across the UK, a third more than 2014. Property companies have been swift to fill the gap in the market by building blocks of flats marketed at students, with some offering impressive-sounding returns to investors, making it a competitive market. “We have identified a number of cities where there has been a large increase in the number of students attending University, however there is a lack of availability of good quality student accommodation - London, Leicester and Liverpool among others”.

“Students from around the world want to come and study in the UK regardless of Brexit and immigration rules. Therefore, it is a booming market that we are looking to test waters in. But it is still early days for us,” he concludes.

Nacropolis share a justifiable optimism for the forthcoming year and envisage a return to a healthy market in 2020.

SPECIALIST COMMERCIAL BROKERS

Shyam Popat or Roy Hawkins

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