PRESS RELEASE
THE BUDGET MUST HELP REAL ESTATE INVESTORS SUPPORT GROWTH – AREF
London, 21 October 2025: The Association of Real Estate Funds is asking the Chancellor of the Exchequer for changes to legislation, regulations, tax policies and operational practices. These will enable AREF’s members, who invest about £50bn in UK commercial and residential property, to get fully behind the government and help deliver its growth agenda.
The Association has three main requests for Rachel Reeves and her department:
1. Unlock the UK pensions market for growth.
Many pension savers can’t invest in the new Long-Term Asset Funds. This is because the platforms they save through can only accept funds that trade daily … which excludes LTAFs. This needs to change if we are to blend the full potential of pension savers with essential growth assets.
It would also help to make authorised property funds eligible for ISA investments. LTAFs will soon be eligible. Let’s have a level playing field.
2. More support for the Reserved Investor Fund.
The RIF is a clever and simple new fund structure, designed specifically for essential growth assets – like infrastructure and housing – but more legislation is needed to widen its appeal.
For example, RIFs are classed as alternative investment funds. They could reach a wider audience of savers if legislation recasts them as collective investment schemes – a simple and cost-neutral measure.
3. Tax reforms.
a) It would be easier and cheaper to build the houses we all desperately need if the Government reinstates the Multiple Dwellings Relief. They ended it to stop people buying multiple homes – but it’s impeding commercial developers.
b) Offer Local Government Pension Schemes some relief from stamp duty land tax.
c) Extend the zero-rating VAT for refurbishing projects. At the moment, the rules incentivise knocking down a stranded asset and rebuilding it. This takes time and money. We’d like to see incentives for quicker and cheaper refurbishment instead.
Paul Richards, Chief Executive of the Association of Real Estate Funds, says: “The Chancellor and the Treasury have acted positively in generating the growth agenda and we could be on the cusp of real, lasting change. But plenty of smaller things – like getting more savers into British property and refurbishing stranded assets – could all accelerate that change and support more growth. It’s within Rachel Reeves’s gift to make these tweaks and release the property industry’s full potential.”
For further information, please contact:
Paul Richards, AREF: [email protected]
David Butcher, Communications and Content: 07834 350101 or [email protected]