Charlie Baxter speaks at the London Development Summit 2017

LONDON DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT 2017: International investors still want to put their money into London development despite their concerns and they would likely invest more if these concerns were lifted

Speaking on a panel at the EG London Development Summit, Charlie Baxter, co-founder of Alchemi Group, said that investors have been confused by Brexit and concerned by the headlines.

He said: “When Brexit happened it was tough and a lot of our investors are international. We had to explain to them what Brexit was and due to the headlines they can’t seem to get a straight answer about what’s happening.

“We need to look after our international investors, and at the moment there is anti-sentiment. I understand everything that is going on and it is challenging, but we want to be welcoming them and not pointing the finger at them and saying that we have a housing shortage.”

However, John Miu, chief operating officer at ABP, believes that long-term investors will be less concerned about the uncertainty in the market than those that are only looking at London on a short-term basis.

He said: “As a major investor we always see a long-term view, and we believe it is the champion of time. We can see how Britain has been through many different financial times and that on a long-term basis the demand will never reduce. As a large term investor we only look at Brexit as a space in time.”

One of the main challenges in the London development market is planning and infrastructure, with one of the major issues being how long it takes for planning to go though.

Samantha Harden, head of strategy at CLS Risk Solutions, said: “It is about understanding the process of how we get it done and the financial requirements involved.”

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