Research and Briefings

Following the UK Autumn Budget 2024, our analysis examines the key impacts of the Chancellor's statement on the property sector. Our analysis focuses on seven key themes, including:

• Tax and finance
• Housing
• Planning
• Life sciences
• Healthcare
• Regeneration and devolution 
• Net zero and clean energy

In partnership with Savills, the BPF are pleased to publish the UK Build-to-Rent Q3 2024 report. The report presents the quarterly growth patterns and trends over the last 10 years, and demonstrates the position the property sector is in.

Following our Building Our Future campaign, our BPF Autumn Budget representation outlines how the UK property sector can work with the Government to make a significant contribution to national growth by building more homes, employment spaces, and critical infrastructure, revitalising town centres, decarbonising buildings, and embracing PropTech and data.

Building healthy futures: Strengthening our healthcare estates is the BPF’s primary and secondary care policy document, setting out the importance of estates to our healthcare system, and how we can use estates to deliver the NHS’ vision. In it, we call on the Government to work with industry to explore how private capital can be deployed to alleviate public funding pressures and deliver on NHS ambitions.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) have published their latest annual assessment of the Government’s progress in cutting emissions. This assessment looks at progress across all sectors of the economy, including the buildings sector. The report notes the substantial progress that has been made – in large part by the phasing out of coal and the ramping up of renewables – but concludes that urgent action is needed if the UK is to hit its 2030 target of cutting emissions by 68% compared to 1990. This briefing provides a short summary of the CCC report for BPF members.

Forty Government Bills were announced in the King’s Speech. This briefing summarises and responds to those relevant or potentially relevant to the property industry (ten Bills in total).

In partnership with Savills, the BPF are pleased to publish the UK Build-to-Rent Q2 2024 stats. The stats present the quarterly growth patterns and trends over the last 10 years, and demonstrates the position the property sector is in.

Launched at Housing 2024, This Code establishes a set of standards which embody and aim to promote good governance practice in the for-profit registered provider of social housing (FPRP) sector in England. The sector plays a valuable and increasingly significant role in the provision of affordable housing, and the BPF’s members recognise the importance of good governance in safeguarding the interests of shareholders, customers and other stakeholders, and in protecting the reputation of the sector.

Access to energy data is a huge challenge for many property owners. In our Towards Net Zero research, published last year, access to energy data was cited by BPF members as one of the top challenge to a net zero carbon transition. Closing the Data Deficit investigates this in more detail. It looks at the role of data in the net zero transition, examines the challenges and barriers to sharing data, explores how technology can help and makes a series of policy recommendations.

The BPF’s annual assessment of the commercial real estate’s economic footprint looks at the jobs and labour market, output and turnover, tax revenue and capital investment across the sector which comprises office, retail, industrial, logistics, leisure, medical and hotel properties as well as  Build-to-Rent and student accommodation.

We wrote to Minister Baroness Scott on marriage value as part of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill. We highlighted that research by Quod and Cluttons illustrates the impact assessment on this is deeply flawed and therefore misleading. 

In partnership with the Association for Rental Living (ARL), BusinessLDN, and PriceHubble, we've launched our Who Lives in Build-to-Rent? report which shows the rising popularity of the UK’s Build to Rent (BTR) sector across an increasingly broad range of renters.