Opportunity London CEO, Jace Tyrrell, recently caught up with Andrew Teacher on the Property Week Podcast, discussing Opportunity London's mission to attract £100bn in capital investment for low carbon real estate, infrastructure and transport.
Citing reseaarch by Opportunity London partner JLL, Jace argues that London remains “the most globally traded city for real estate in the world, stretching back over the last five years.” Nevertheless, while the value of that investment was £22bn pre-2019, the value in 2024 is £11bn. Jace says that some of the loss can be attributed to “macro trends on the cost of capital and pressure on sovereign wealth and pension funds to invest domestically within their own jurisdictions, resulting in lower outward capital flows.” Yet, as Jace also cautions, “some of the reason why is the pace of getting decisions made, and unlocking the deals, has slowed which is putting off some global investment committees.”
In the year ahead, and with a new Government, Jace hopes “to get some of that friction out of the decision-making process to unlock more investment deals.” A primary challenge for a Labour government focused on productivity and growth will be courting third party capital, given the state of public finances. To do that, in Jace's view, will require being “very clear with metro mayors and local councils about what they wish to achieve through planning, in turn unlocking investors for housing, infrastructure and transport. These investors will need to be reassured that the goalposts will not be moved.” This will also involve acclimatising local authorities to “being more comfortable talking to institutional and private capital.”
The full conversation can be listened to on the Property Week website.
