North West Residential Property Awards 2025 Winners

Insider Media

Robyn Hewson speaks to some of the winner's from this year's North West Residential Property Awards to hear how it feels to win and what 2025 holds for the industry.

Transcript

00:00Brilliant, so you've won Urban and City Living Developer of the Year. How does it feel to

00:14win?

00:15Absolutely awesome. It's such a great award for us. This is the award we've been waiting

00:18for for 15 years, 20 years. It's our 20th anniversary this year. I could not be prouder

00:24of the business.

00:25Oh, what perfect timing.

00:26Yeah.

00:27You've got schemes in towns like Stockport and Wigan. A few years ago, people might not

00:32have been looking at these towns the way they are now. How do you think City Heart is breathing

00:36new life into these towns?

00:38I think we're just putting a new energy, a new vibrancy into the city centre we're developing.

00:43Particularly with colleagues like AEW and a wider professional team. We're really creating

00:47some new enthusiasm, new energy, some new ideas into our development. Stockford Park

00:52is on site this year. It's amazing how that transforms Stockport off the back of the interchange

00:58that we completed last year, which is a ward wing in itself. I think having imaginative

01:03supply chain members, particularly AEW architects and others, is critical to helping us create

01:08and deliver our vision.

01:09AEW chose to sponsor this award tonight. Why was this one a special one for you?

01:15I think we're at a time now where we're all looking at our town centres. We're all looking

01:19at places we want to move to, where we need to live. We're looking at how we can bring

01:23new life, breathe new life into these places. We, AEW, we're doing work with you guys as well.

01:28We're looking at a number of schemes in Stockport. We've looked at schemes in Wigan. We're working

01:31in Bolton. It's so important. We, as a practice, very much believe in this and wanted to put our

01:37name up there with it. Very, very proud to be able to present it to you.

01:40Brilliant. What does 2025 hold for City Heart?

01:44Just more energy, bigger team, new development. We're working on a lot of exciting new schemes

01:50we can't wait to talk to everyone about, up and down the country, from London to south-east

01:55to south-west, north-west of England, into Scotland now as well. Really exciting times

02:01and couldn't be prouder of this award. Thank you.

02:04Yes, I'm Nick Russell from Salboy.

02:07I'm Kelly Armstrong from Salboy.

02:09I'm Kevin Ears from Salboy as well.

02:11Fantastic, and you've been part of building all the units, right? How does it feel to win?

02:15Yes, really excited. A lot of hard work's gone in from all the team and professionals

02:20and everyone, so yeah, really happy.

02:22Fantastic, and what do you think makes this development stand out compared to all the

02:26developments we've got going on?

02:27I think the main thing is just bringing the old grey two-listed arches back to life,

02:32doing something a bit different, bringing the immunity into that space,

02:35making something that's not really been done in Manchester before.

02:37And the immunity offer inside is incredible, isn't it?

02:40Oh yeah, it's lovely. The pool is absolutely sensational. I wish I kept one for myself,

02:44to be honest with you, but unfortunately.

02:47Fantastic, and what's coming up next for Salboy in 2025 or beyond?

02:51Well, we've got St Michael's, which is under construction now, obviously fully sold out,

02:55and then Bylux Phase 2 in planning at the moment, so fingers crossed we get that in February.

03:01So, we're Keep Moat North West. I'm Katie Dean, Land and Partnerships Manager.

03:05Peter Barlow, I'm the Regional Managing Director.

03:08John Osego is Head of Land and Partnerships.

03:11Fantastic, and you've just gone House Builder of the Year. Did you expect to win tonight?

03:15No!

03:15Absolutely not.

03:17But we are thrilled.

03:18We're thrilled.

03:19Absolutely here with the moon.

03:20And why do you think the judges picked you?

03:23We've been in this area for such a long time, and I think this is now true to all our legacy

03:31and our heritage of what we've done. Now we're getting recognised for it because we are coming

03:35back with a vengeance and doing some really good stuff.

03:38And how are you delivering the hopes of places that really need them?

03:42Well, we build for first-time, second-time buyers, so we go into the really nitty-gritty

03:47areas that nobody else wants to go to. Someone loved very difficult, challenging places,

03:53and we take a chance. We do lots of other things as well.

03:57We're a key partnership builder as well, one of the top 10 UK partnerships, and I think what we

04:01do is tend to be working closely with local authorities, do a lot of social value work,

04:07and working at sort of grassroots level, trying to get those kids at the sites that perhaps

04:13don't look at, we do.

04:15Are there any challenges that you've had to overcome with your cyber development?

04:19So many. Everything's a challenge. Land ownerships, planning, market conditions,

04:27the length of the project. Sometimes we do multi-phases. We've had changes of government,

04:32changes of planners, changes of market conditions through that, all of that as well. So yeah,

04:39nothing is easy, but God loves a try, right?

04:42Just keep adapting every day, haven't we?

04:44We just need some help with the planning system at the moment, just to free that up a little bit.

04:50And then what's next for Keepover?

04:53The future's bright. We're building, we're growing, we want to take over.

04:58To the miles.

04:59Yeah.

04:59To miles and back.

05:00Yeah, to miles and back. Yeah.

05:03Ascent Living are delighted to win Residential Operator of the Year.

05:07It's a credit to the team and the business. We've invested heavily in people, process,

05:14and delivered well for our clients. Loads are here tonight,

05:17a recent client of ours, to share this accolade, and we're absolutely delighted.

05:22Fantastic. And what's coming next for Ascent?

05:25Watch this space.

05:26Hi, I'm Chris Cullen, the fund manager for the homelessness theme at Residence,

05:30for the National Homelessness Property Fund, too.

05:33Hi, I'm Sam Berry, the property investment analyst for the National Homelessness Property Fund, too.

05:38And I'm Bryony Bronson. I work for Salix Homes, and I work with Residence on their housing fund.

05:45Fantastic. So what exactly is this project delivering? That's just what our social impact

05:49is.

05:50So what we do is we work with great quality housing partners like Salix Homes.

05:54We purchase and refurbish property, and then we let it to people who would otherwise be

06:00homeless at local housing allowances.

06:02Fantastic. And you're impacting a lot of people's lives here, aren't you?

06:05Yeah, there are lots of people that currently are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation,

06:09and what we provide is a route out of that, and so a place to call home,

06:13somewhere safe and secure that makes a difference.

06:15So if you're in temporary accommodation, you might not be able to send your children to

06:20school very easily. You might not have a permanent address to get a job.

06:23So if you can have somewhere that's your own home with your own front door, it makes a big

06:27difference.

06:28Fantastic. And what's the next steps for the project?

06:31So we're excited. We've just raised some more money, and we're deploying across the UK now.

06:35So we're working in Greater Manchester, we're working in Merseyside, and we're also working

06:39in London. So we're looking forward to kind of raising more money and making more of a

06:43difference to people's lives.

06:45I'm Guy Butler from Glenbrook.

06:47And you've just won our Outstanding Contribution of the Year Award alongside Ian tonight.

06:52How does it feel to win?

06:53Well, I'm a bit gutted Ian isn't here. He's disappeared off to Ireland to see his family,

06:58and so he's left me standing and holding the baby, but obviously very pleased to receive it.

07:03Fantastic. And what have some of your proudest achievements been over the last decade?

07:08We started from nothing, quite literally nothing, and we've been supported by amazing

07:13people the whole way. We've been very lucky. It's a very tough market at the moment,

07:17and it's heads down, and we're still succeeding.

07:21And you actually won Deal of the Year. I think it was our first

07:24residential property award that you might have heard us say earlier,

07:26and you've won Deal of the Year again tonight. So what was significant about tonight's deal?

07:31A lot of stamina, a lot of hard work, believing that we can get there,

07:34and a grit and determination really.

07:37And the first one that you won for in 2016 was the first institutionally funded

07:42BTR deal in the UK, was it? Is that right?

07:44It was. It was the first outside London. In 2015, September, we opened it, and it was huge.

07:51Nobody was developing in Liverpool then, and we were the only people pretty much

07:55able to deliver that sort of thing.

07:57Fantastic. And what a legacy you've created over the last 10 years.

07:59Thank you very much.

08:00So what's next for Glenbrook? What can we look forward to?

08:02Heads down and do the same thing. We've just put planning in for Whitworth Street

08:06in the centre of Manchester, and that's a 44-storey tower,

08:09so just carrying on what we've been doing.

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