In defence of PD micro-homes

[caption id="attachment_999412" align="alignright" width="200"] Josh Garside[/caption] COMMENT The headline of EG’s recent report on permitted development rights and micro-homes was attention-grabbing: “Small homes, big problems”. But the same can be said for bigger homes, which can and often do have even bigger problems. Size definitely matters, especially to the consumer, whether the homes are built from scratch or designed using the shell of a former office building. But apartments and houses need to be built – we have a national deficit of homes and a huge problem in the sector. Antiquated planning process What office-to-residential permitted development rights did was streamline an antiquated planning process. The system is politically motivated and incredibly time-consuming and expensive. This can hurt an SME developer such as Apt Living, which does not have the multi-billion-pound balance sheet required to sit on land for months on end while planning committees defer a scheme until after an election. While Brexit is making it tough across the entire residential sector, our Apt Kew Bridge scheme is bucking a trend. The apartments are selling extremely well because we have the right price point, affordable to first-time buyers. Should buyers be told what is good for them by out-of-touch architects and surveyors? I for one think not. PD schemes can deliver much-needed homes in half the time of a new-build. Some developers in the past may have taken that flexibility too far, seeing to it that design and quality fall by the wayside. The demise of the PD titans is a well-known phenomenon. But this is just as much down to mismanagement and failure to control cost and risk as it is to PD rights themselves. Improving build quality Whatever the mix, all housebuilders should be better at improving build quality year-on-year. Our flagship development at Kew Bridge, where homes are intelligently designed to feel far larger than some of their traditional counterparts, is exponentially more advanced in terms of design and amenity choice compared with our first PD project several years ago. We care about improving as we go, constantly evolving the product. PD and micro-flats should be options. Those fighting against both at the same time do not have a clue what millennials and young, first-time buyers want today. They are living in some kind of economic and planning utopia whereby the housing crisis is being caused by all developers sitting on consented schemes. Rising demand There is a market, now more than ever, for these types of apartments. Only the privileged few can afford to purchase a home that is built through the normal planning process in many London boroughs. A multi­faceted approach to housing supply is one of the many strings to the bow required to solve the crisis that London’s housing supply faces. Although micro-apartments are seeing a surge in popularity, they are nothing new. Cities around the world, where space is at a premium, have seen the rise of micro-living for years. Take Hong Kong, for example, where micro-housing is popular in the mainstream as housing prices spiral. Residential does not just mean planning use class C3 anymore. It is build-to-rent, micro-homes and co-living. Regional councils across the UK, which are not tied to stricter GLA rules, allow the relaxation of optional national minimum space standards when it means development will be brought forward. Well-designed micro-apartments, particularly in town centres, are being encouraged in order to bring in much-needed housing figures and revitalise empty buildings. Other than PDR, there is not a policy-compliant way of delivering readily mortgageable micro-units (no matter how well designed) for open-market sale through the planning system in Greater London. Until PDR becomes a more established delivery mechanism for housing, with some form of check and balance on design, there is a higher risk ratio for all stakeholders. However, it is this kind of niche revolution the sector needs to offer. With some fantastic examples of future co-living schemes already available, we’ve got a chance to be radical, and we will not get anything done by following the status quo. It is absolutely farcical that some people in the industry feel PD developments do not hold their value. All PD projects need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis – you can’t judge them all based on shoddy examples. Good design creates long-term appeal, which in turn brings with it strong values. Is the real problem here micro-flats or an out-of-touch sector, caught up in historical preconceptions of what the consumer should and shouldn’t be allowed to buy? Josh Garside is managing director at Apt Living