CALLING ALL ESTATE OR MANAGING AGENTS...

We are currently securing around 500 vacant buildings. Large office or warehouse/industrial spaces; big and small retail units;?empty council or NHS buildings; ex-residential care homes; and private houses. The list is endless.

Each one is providing a much-needed, affordable and safe home to a deserving key worker. Working professionals doing important jobs, often in city centres, but probably not very well paid. For them, times are difficult. Every penny counts as the supermarket shop costs more with every visit, private sector rents are rising inexorably, travel costs are increasing and even having a takeaway cup of coffee or a pizza now seems like a luxury. You can’t blame some of them for striking, it’s not what they really want to do, but they are in despair and being squeezed from all directions.

I happened to visit Brighton a week or two ago. A bustling, cosmopolitan seaside town on the south coast, only an hour on the train from London, with a vibrant tourist trade, entertainment and cultural offerings with something that appeals to almost everyone. Yet, as I walked down towards the city centre from the main station, I hadn’t gone more than a block before I passed not one, but several small office buildings, all carrying signs they were to let. Obviously I couldn’t be sure, but it definitely appeared they’d been in that vacant state for quite a while and I shook my head in despair. Why? Why, are they empty? And how many more are there like this in the city? They weren’t derelict, they were relatively modern or recently refurbished buildings; some large, purpose-built office blocks, others were offices above retail units at street level, and many of those were closed up as well. Why leave so many perfectly good buildings standing empty when they could be put to good use until they’re re-let, sold, converted, or whatever their owners deem the right next step for their properties in the current economic climate?

Installing guardians is not a permanent commitment, it’s a temporary and easily reversible option for owners of vacant property, in the short or long term. It secures a building from the scourge of vandals, squatters, anti-social behaviour, fly-tippers, etc. yet also offers the social benefit of providing a home for people; people who will look after the property while they live there and the guardian company will keep an eye on the fabric of the building while they are responsible for it. And it saves the property owner money on business rates, insurance, and other outgoings. What’s not to like or approve of?

The number of people homeless in England is apparently predicted to jump by a third by 2024 as councils across the country warn of a “tidal wave” of need caused by benefit freezes, soaring food and energy bills and the end of Covid eviction bans. And ‘homeless’ doesn’t just cover vagrants or people sleeping on the street; it covers those forced out of their former homes by unaffordable rent increases or landlords who decide to sell up as maintaining their property portfolio becomes unviable due to mortgage increases, tax and interest rate rises. Many of these ‘homeless’ people then have to ‘sofa surf’ wherever they can find sympathetic friends or, unfortunately, often unscrupulous opportunists who take advantage of these vulnerable, often desperate individuals.

These ‘sofa surfers’ are the great unknown statistic in this sector. They can be teenagers or pensioners, or anyone in between, and their plight has finally percolated to the top of the media agenda. Just this week on the main BBC news I caught an item about a 74-year-old woman who had found herself homeless when her former landlord decided to sell the bungalow she had been renting for years. She was on a fixed income, and no suitable social housing is available, but simply couldn’t find alternative accommodation she could afford to rent. Rental prices in her area of the Midlands had rocketed and demand was outstripping availability. She was currently 'sofa surfing' at a friend’s home, but this wasn’t going to be a viable and permanent solution to her accommodation problem and she was in despair. This was yet another illustration of the consequences of the lack of affordable or social housing available across the country, a problem that just grows and grows with no apparent solution on the horizon, and it’s impacting a gradually widening section of our population. We are simply not building enough affordable housing, and we need it now, not way into the future.

In the meantime, there was nothing in the recent Budget to address the financial problems facing landlords and property developers, or incentivise them, especially with the latest interest rate rise, so the private rental sector looks set to contract even more as demand for rental property rises. It’s not a good outlook.

We, in our small and practical way, are trying to help some people caught in this net, so if you’re an estate or managing agent with office or shop buildings on your books, and no tenants on the horizon, talk to your clients, their owners. Commercial properties are always so much easier to re-let when they look warm, inviting and cared for, instead of damp, cold, empty and abandoned.

Pick up the phone tomorrow, you could be doing them a favour and you won’t be losing business yourself in the long run, and thank Fate or your God you are not likely to be a 'sofa surfer' any time soon… but then of course, one never knows what is waiting for all of us around the corner…