踏入2022年，代表最後一代的Y世代(1990-1999)都從大學畢業，步入社會。而在新一代開展他們事業的同時，住宅租賃市場亦湧現以Y世代為主的租客群。Y世代與千禧世代素來都被認為是數碼科技的原生居民，從一出身就一直在接受新事物新科技。那新一代的租客與過住的租客有何不同?他們對理想居所的定義又是什麼?今次我們訪問英國Select Property Group亞太區銷售總監Hannah Goldie，SPG作為英國發展商，旗下Affinity Living品牌自推出以來一直深受年輕租客歡迎，今次請Hannah Goldie分享發展商觀察到現時英國租客的需求正面臨怎樣的轉變?
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Hannah Goldie
亞太區銷售總監
Select Property Group
本文目錄
Q：在我們深入了解Affinity Living的故事之前，或許你可以先介紹一下自己。
Hannah Goldie
我是Hannah Goldie。現任職Select Property Group亞洲團隊的銷售總監。在過去十年，我一直從事於英國房地產，從高端住宅，到學生專用公寓以及物業投資的方方面面。在Select Property Group工作期間，我來往於英國和香港，主要負責英國及亞洲市場。我很榮幸能幫助很多新客戶展開他們的英國投資之旅，以及協助我們的長期客戶持續擴大現有房产投資組合。
Q：請讓宅點的讀者了解更多Select Property Group和Affinity Living的特點，是什麼讓你們以及所開發的項目與眾不同？
Hannah Goldie
Select Property Group是英國領先的房地產開發商和投資專家之一。自2004年以來，我們一直在投資潛力最強的城市開發最好的房地產項目。我們以最高水平的服務為標準，關注客戶需求，並提出針對性建議，這亦是世界各地投資者一次又一次選擇Select Property Group的原因。我們在歐洲、中東、東南亞、香港和上海均設有辦事處，並擁有全球投資顧問團隊。
隨著英國租務市場的持續增長，對「為租而建Built-to-Rent/Purpose built rental homes」的房屋需求也同步增加。Affinity Living於2016年推出，是Select Property Group旗下的高端住宅品牌。品牌項目兼顧現代風格，與租屋實質需求而建造，專門針對年輕、富裕的市中心租房者。
Affinity Living可滿足目標租戶對租屋所有要求；尊貴舒適的住宅公寓；最完備的會所設施和市中心交通便利的位置。而我們的項目配備遠超過這些「基本要求」。
我們在住宅的公共區域舉辦活動，為租客創造難忘體驗，並與城市本土品牌和知名企業合作，於屋苑中開設快閃店。我們以「家」的概念建立居民的社區，提升租戶續租率，帶來更穩定的租金，進而推動投資者的回報。
英國大部分屋苑社區都很少鼓勵租客之間的社交，而Affinity Living品牌項目不同，我們為志同道合的人創建專屬社區。研究表明，如果90%的租戶在他們所住的屋苑中認識兩個朋友，那麼他們續租的機會將更大。
Q：是什麼驅使Select Property將Affinity Living從曼徹斯特擴展到伯明翰？
Hannah Goldie
曼徹斯特和伯明翰都是充滿活力的英國城市，有快速增長的年輕人口，並受益於英國對高速鐵路2號線HS2的長期投資——HS2將縮短倫敦和其他城市之間的交通時間。我們已經看到許多知名企業將總部遷至這兩個城市，從而創造大量就業機會，進而導致市中心物業的供應短缺，特別是Affinity Living這樣為租而建的公寓類型。
伯明翰作為英國人口第二大城市，預計未來五年樓價和租金增長最為強勁，平均每年將增長4.9%。
Q：請說說目前Affinity Living品牌的投資表現，例如物業升值情況，以及在租賃市場情況。
Hannah Goldie
儘管英國的房地產市場受到全球疫情影響，但Affinity Living第一個項目Riverside自 2020年開業以來的入住率便達到100%，成為曼徹斯特市中心內出租速度最快的新項目之一。平均租金超過1,250英鎊，並且續約租戶一直維持在較高水平。
租戶大多是年輕商業專業人士和研究生。曼徹斯特是許多上市公司所在地，大學畢業生留居率比例高，因此這兩個群體是Affinity Living的主要目標市場。同樣地，伯明翰有75%城市核心居民年齡在35歲以下，是全歐洲最年輕的城市，是Affinity Living理想的下一站。
Q：那麼誰是買家？Select Property Group在買家購房過程中提供了哪些幫助？
Hannah Goldie
我們的客戶包括個人投資者、長期回報投資者、希望豐富投資組合的業主，以及以自住為目標的買家。我們為每位客戶提供最切合他們需求的建議，並透過我們的環球專業服務團隊、幫助投資者完成購買流程。我們自身有租務管理團隊，亦與專業服務夥伴長期合作。當業主需要退出市場時，我們還有一個內部轉售團隊可協助。
Q：你能告訴我們Select Property Group下一步計劃是什麼嗎？
Hannah Goldie
我們正在英國尋找更多合適的地點來擴展Affinity Living品牌。同時，我們持續關注營運項目的品質，確保我們為租戶創造優質空間和全新體驗，讓他們擁有最佳居住體驗，繼續享受一起生活的樂趣。Affinity Living Lancaster Wharf最近推出到市場，已成功預售超過120套公寓單位。Affinity Living Lancaster Wharf將是我們目前的重點，幫助全球投資者與伯明翰不斷增長的房地產市場上同行。
Q：英國重新向世界開放，並沒有入境限制，我們已經看到海外人士開始回訪英國。你認為曼徹斯特和伯明翰的房地產市場將發生什麼變化？
Hannah Goldie
儘管在全球疫情流行期間，我們仍然看到本地和海外買家對英國房地產的需求很高。現在我們十分期待海外業主到訪英國，親自察看他們持有的竣工物業。我們在曼徹斯特的團隊亦歡迎更多國際買家到來。
Q：請分享一件你在伯明翰或曼徹斯特居住時最喜歡的事情。
Hannah Goldie
我最鍾意當地的人和豐富的吃喝玩樂地標。曼徹斯特和伯明翰的當地人口非常多元化和友善，這對城市的生活體驗影響深遠。曼徹斯特的餐廳，咖啡屋和酒吧都充滿活力。市中心周圍的街道上有許多戶外用餐區，在春季和夏季的夜晚會非常熱鬧。而伯明翰將舉辦2022年英聯邦運動會(2022 Commonwealth Games)，我很期待接下來精彩的體育賽事和開幕儀式，當然，還有熱情的觀眾。
查看更多Select Property Group 資訊
網站：https://selectproperty.com/
Original (英文原文）
Q1 : Before we dig deeper into Affinity Living’s story, perhaps you can give me a bit of background of yourself. Where you came from, where you are going, what you do and how you do it?？
My name is Hannah Goldie. I’m the Head of Sales for Select Property Group Asia team. I have been working in the UK property market for the last decade, covering everything from prime London residential to purpose-built student property and regional investments. During my time at Select Property Group I have worked in both the UK and Asia market, based between London and Hong Kong. It’s a great pleasure to help a range of new clients start their UK investing journey, as well as repeat clients expand their portfolios.
Q2: Can you tell me more about the Select Property Group and Affinity Living? What are the key characteristics that make it different from other projects?
Select Property Group is one of the UK’s leading property developers and investment specialists. Since 2004, we have been developing the finest property investments in the strongest investment cities. We provide the highest levels of service as standard, looking at client requirements and making personalized recommendations, which is why investors from around the world choose Select Property Group time and time again. With offices in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and China, we have a team of global investment advisers.
As the UK’s rental sector continues to grow, so does the demand for purpose-built rental homes. Launched in 2016, Affinity Living is Select Property Group’s luxury residential property brand. Contemporary, purpose-built rental homes targeted specifically at young, affluent city centre renters.
Affinity Living delivers on all the things this target market now demands from a rental home; Premium residential apartments; State-of-the-art facilities and Prime city centre locations but also the brand exceeds these minimum requirements.
We host events in our communal areas, creating unforgettable experiences. We also work with local brands and businesses in our cities to host pop-up shops in our residences. We build a community that residents call home, in turn this drives rental interest and tenancy renewals from our tenants, in turn driving investor returns.
Affinity Living developments create communities of like-minded people and research shows 90% of tenants are more likely to renew their tenancy if they know two other people in their building, which few other buildings internally encourage.
Q3: What motivated Select Property to expand the chain-branded development – Affinity Living from Manchester to Birmingham?
Manchester and Birmingham are both vibrant cities with fast growing, young populations and benefitting from the long term national investment in HS2, which will cut journey times from London and between regional cities. We have already seen major companies relocating headquarters to both cities, leading to job creation and in turn a supply and demand imbalance in city centre property, specifically they type of purpose built rental apartments that Affinity Living offers.
Birmingham is the UK’s second city by population and projected to see the strongest house price and rental growth over the next five years, with an average of 4.9% growth per annum.
Q4: Maybe you could tell us about one or two of Affinity Living’s investment performance, what’s the price appreciation and how it is in the rental market.
The first Affinity Living project, Riverside, has had a 100% Occupancy level since its opening in 2020, despite the disruption caused by the global pandemic – making it among the fastest-renting new buildings in Manchester. Average rents are over GBP 1250 pcm and rebooking’s are consistently high.
Tenants are mostly young business professionals and post graduate students. Manchester is home to many listed companies and has a high graduate retention rate, so this is a prime target rental market for Affinity Living. Similarly, 75% of Birmingham’s city core inhabitants are under the age of 35 – the youngest city population in Europe and makes it an ideal next location for Affinity Living.
Q5: And so who are the buyers and what did you help with their property purchasing journey?
Our clients include new individual investors, buying for long term returns, previous landlords growing their portfolios and also end users who will own and occupy the apartments. We advise each client on the best property to suit their needs, help them through the purchase process with our global investor services team, some of the properties we manage in house, or have recommended partners in place and we also have an inhouse resales team, for as and when a client is looking to exit their investment.
Q6: Can you tell us what is next for Select Property Group? What is on the horizon?
We’re looking for more hot spots in the UK to expand our Affinity Living brand. Meanwhile, we continue to focus on the quality of our operational buildings, ensuring we are innovating spaces and experiences for our tenants, so they have the best experience and continue to enjoy living with us. Affinity Living, Lancaster Wharf has recently launched, with a successful pre-launch seeing over 120 apartments sold. This will be our currently focus to help global investors to be part of the growing property market in Birmingham.
Q7: The UK has re-opened to the world without travel restrictions, and we’ve seen people from overseas have started to return back to the UK. What changes do you think the property market will be for Manchester and Birmingham?
Demand continues to be high for UK property from both local and overseas buyers during and despite the pandemic. We now look forward to welcoming more of our international buyers to meet with us and see some of their completed properties, as well new clients, via our onsite Investor Relations team in Manchester.
Q8: I wonder whether you might be able to shine a light on your current favorite things as living in Birmingham or Manchester – what puts a smile on your face?
The people, as well as the places really do make a difference to the experience you have in a city and both Manchester and Birmingham have a diverse and friendly population. Manchester has a really vibrant food and drink scene with lots of outdoor dining areas in the streets around the city centre that come alive during the spring and summer evenings. Birmingham will host the 2022 Commonwealth games and I look forward being an enthusiastic spectator at a range of sports events and ceremonies across the new facilities in the city.
