Stace On Stage At Bisnow

Stace were proud to support the Build to Rent Conference (BTR) which took place at the Hilton London Wembley. A familiar setting to us at Stace as, on behalf of Quintain, we managed the delivery of the hotel which opened in time for the Olympics in 2012 and we continue to provide project management, CDM advice and Party Wall surveying to the regeneration of Wembley Park.

The conference was hosted by Quintain, the developer for Wembley Park, and was a perfect location, with Wembley on track to become the largest BTR development in the UK. Over 300 delegates joined the conference to hear from leading industry figures, which begun with Angus Dodd, CEO of Quintain, discussing the plans for the north west London site.

During the morning Partner, Mark Ashby and Quintain’s Executive Director – Construction, Matt Voyce, led a tour around Wembley Park showcasing the mixed-use regeneration site. Wembley Park has had £1bn investment to date and when complete will deliver 7,000 new homes, a 7-acre park and 630 places for a new primary school.

Later in the day Partner, Glyn Crawley, took to the stage to lead the discussion on the afternoon’s agenda – Is BTR a sustainable model for all parts of the UK? Glyn was joined on stage by; Andrew Saunderson (Grainger), Sophie White (Homes and Communities Agency), Fergus Evans (Grosvenor) and Darren Carter (Cheyne Capital). The full schedule is available on the Bisnow website.

With 50% of UK BTR projects taking place outside of London, there was a clear consensus that successful BTR was not bound to the capital, and that the sector was only at the beginning of it’s lifecycle with an exciting future ahead. The panel session finished with all members agreeing that for BTR to continue to flourish the key is flexibility, recognition of customer diversification and different needs, retention of the customers and longevity.

It was great to be supporting the conference, and we look forward to being involved in further conversations on the BTR sector.