AREF breakfast with Residential Funds

On Tuesday 14th June 2022 we held a breakfast meeting with a number of residential fund managers and members of the AREF Residential Funds Working Group to discuss the residential sector. We have all seen the growth of the sector in the last few years across BTR, student housing, affordable housing, student accommodation, senior living and care homes. The prominence of the sector is only likely to become greater in the context of the Government’s levelling up agenda. 

Residential is one of AREF’s strategic growth sectors and we already have a number of workstreams underway. The ultimate aim is to attract more capital into the sector by evidencing AREF members’ core standards of transparency and good governance. 

Thank you to our Affiliate member Greenburg Traurig, who kindly hosted us at their offices in the Shard       

It was an excellent turnout, with some very useful discussion points and feedback. It is clear there is appetite for some sort of residential index, we (as an industry) just need to get it right. There is more work to be done here and we shall be inviting all of you to join us on that journey in due course. What we heard loud and clear is 'simplicity' wins over complexity - at least initially. 

Furthermore, there are clearly a number of areas AREF can assist with regarding the lobby, from the 2% surcharge for international investors to encouraging policy that stimulates supply rather than demand, for example. As we discussed, numbers really make a difference with this kind of engagement, so coming together as one distinct voice for residential funds will be key to our collective success.

We will be in touch in the future.