Property Partnerships: London Real Estate Forum 2025

David Taylor reports from LREF

If you were to compile a ‘word cloud’ about this year’s LREF, the clever money would be on it containing a fair few ‘headwinds’, a smattering of ‘bumps in the road’, and a whole bunch of variants on ‘caution’. But there would also be a degree of opportunity, optimism and, in triple-height bold type, that ‘P’ word – ‘Partnerships’.

Given prevailing economic conditions and the theme of the talks and seminars at the Guildhall, this is perhaps not surprising. What was notable, however, was the feeling that by working together more efficiently, the journey to a better built Britain is both achievable and necessary.

Working more efficiently in partnerships is essential if the UK’s property industry is to make headway in hard-hit sectors like housing, where its continued level of undersupply is a marked cause for concern.

At least, though, we can now declaratively point to its considerable heft and contribution to the UK’s coffers, with LREF organisers NLA itself publishing the fruits of its own partnership-working with GLA Economics and the LSE. This important work quantifies and declares that built environment provides a quarter of the UK’s GVA – some £568 billion – making it twice the size of the financial services sector and employs one in eight of the workforce, some 3.8 million people. The Treasury must surely sit up and notice.

Big bang theory

NLA’s Nick McKeogh kicked off with his hopes for the event, pointing to the ‘superconnected hub’ of London and those figures of a growth sector in its own right as the basis for optimism, and for a consequent ripple-effect. ‘We believe now is the time for a ‘big bang for the built environment’, he said.

JLL’s Adam Challis delivered a characteristically TED Talk-like forensic analysis in a state of the market address, noting the disastrously low (5%) rates of growth in London housing starts, albeit next to a more optimistic picture of ‘slow improvement’ and ‘relative recovery’ in offices and the diverse ‘mosaic’ of development generally. But, quoting panellist Related Argent’s Tom Goodall, Challis said that resi is an outlier: ‘it’s bloody hard’, and only seems like it’s getting harder, more complex and challenging as the year goes on.

Housing is social infrastructure, said Goodall, but is almost entirely in the private sector’s hands. Is there really a viability challenge? The answer is in those numbers, said Goodall; and we need to build not just 1.5 million homes, but 1.5 million high-quality, long-lasting homes in thriving new neighbourhoods and communities, backed by infrastructure.

British Land’s Emma Cariaga offered an equally gloomy outlook, agreeing that development conditions were perilous. ‘We are stuck at the moment’, she said, because of all those forces coming at us. So: the industry needs to consider new models and being ‘nimbler’ – and this all comes down to risk.

Making workplaces work

JLL’s John Woodger provided some hope concerning an office ‘renaissance’, with stats showing that there was a 12% uptick in volumes over the first half of this year across Europe, but London’s showing was ‘significantly higher’ at 60%, with £6bn of office trades already this year, matching the full year total from 2024. The West End in particular is 45% up at the half year, and 27% above the 10-year average. ‘We’ve now moved from “office curious” to office serious”, he said. ‘We’re confident the recovery in the market has begun, but there’s still caution in the market with headwinds every time we wake up, from somewhere else in the world’.

Fred Pilbrow showed the importance of partnership working, again, on projects including the Vauxhall Square project, emphasizing the importance of a close and open dialogue and good community engagement. About to go to planning, Vauxhall is the last piece of the Nine Elms cluster, with seven buildings and 3000 homes, including a 69-storey tower, health centre and park. ‘I think we have made a scheme that is relevant to local people’, said Pilbrow.

Action stations

But it was the bombshell last session that really left an impression.

Deputy mayor Jules Pipe and the chair of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) Andy Roe outlined their plans and priorities. Pipe promised change soon on viability-blockers like dual aspect and bike parking requirements and a commitment to streamlining the next London Plan, albeit recognising that viability challenges of delivering high volumes won’t come via deregulation. ‘We also need to avoid a race to the bottom’, he said.

While the draft of the next plan will arrive next May, action will come sooner to dismantle the blockers on elements that have been applied ‘too onerously’. Mayor Khan will also use his planning powers to ‘kickstart delivery’ and help planning become ‘more flexible’, focused on ‘rapidly increasing the rate of building in every borough’ and be ‘increasingly active’ in calling in schemes. ‘A step change in housebuilding will require investment in transport infrastructure’, he said, pointing to investment in the Bakerloo Line extension and West London Orbital. ‘We’ve been absolutely clear that we can only deliver 880,000 homes if this critical infrastructure comes forward’.

Roe, meanwhile, set out his scope for learning from the development community on the ‘benchmark piece of legislation’ Building Safety Act, refining the ‘disappointing’ experiences so far with better, more appropriate fire rules, and clearing the Gateway 2 backlog. The BSR faces delays, with 87 applications in Gateway 2, affecting 21,485 housing units in London. Plans to improve efficiency include dedicated account managers and a new Fast Track unit plus a focus on addressing systemic issues including changing supervision requirements, clearer technical guidance, a review of wording in the Act and a ‘common sense’ approach to Gateway 3.

‘The morals, the ethics, the work ethic that people are leading is indisputable’, said Roe of his team. ‘They’re smashing it. But the system they have been asked to facilitate is wildly dysfunctional…it’s my job to change the system’.

As ever with this year’s LREF, there was another underscore here too: the importance of better collaboration between government, industry, and investors to ensure timely – and safe – development.

Partnerships, to the last.