The housing development industry is constantly evolving, and responsible developers need to keep track of their moral responsibilities as well as their bank balances if they want to retire happy and rich simultaneously.
Property development has a huge impact on our built environment, which in turn shapes the ways in which human beings understand the world around them. Issues facing property developers, therefore, impact a vast range of people. This article looks at three of the most significant issues that property developers need to pay very close attention to in 2022.
Environmental Crisis
Property developers are neither innocent in nor unaffected by the climate crisis that looms like some smoldering volcano over all of humanity. Property development and construction use up half of all of the world’s single-use resources. Keeping buildings warm, cool, and habitable also uses the same degree of destructively produced electricity.
Developers can take several steps to make their environmental impact less destructive. Correctly outfitting all of their properties with insulation is one such method. Insulating technologies such as double glazed windows should be fitted as standard. Other ways to insulate homes and buildings include draught-proofing doors and windows, ensuring lofts are insulated to the appropriate thickness and using thermal blinds and curtains. Developers that own properties can apply for various kinds of funding to help with the insulation of their investments. Visit the site of this double glazing installer to see government-supported funding options.
As well as correctly insulating properties, developers need to make sure that their buildings are being constructed using environmentally friendly means and using environmentally friendly materials. The choice of material used for construction or renovation is immensely significant when it comes to the environmental impact of a development. Many kinds of wood, stones, and synthetic materials are dreadful for the environment. Even worse, most of them can only be used once. A new generation of developers and architects are spearheading a shift towards using multi-use materials in new developments. Recycled bricks made from old plastic bags are also currently in vogue amongst the architectural new wave.
Green Space Protection
The United Kingdom is a small country with a big population. There is arguably too much demand for houses and commercial spaces to maintain the green spaces that make the country unique. Developers in 2022 are going to need to contend more than ever with the issues surrounding the encroachment of developments onto green space. Local advocacy groups often rightly protest against the destruction of space that is essential to the mental health and environmental diversity of an area. Indeed, access to green space is one of the features of British urban and suburban space that is most cherished. The concept of the ‘garden city’ is held dear by many.
Developers need to be sensitive to the environmental needs of the communities they are developing in. Take an active role in the cultivation of green space by collaborating with local advocacy groups and putting money into the maintenance of these zones. Your development should actively foster the things about an area that are attractive to potential tenants and purchasers. Destroying green spaces actively disassembles the appeal of an area.
Cladding And Safety
This section of the article deals with some of the most immediately tragic consequences of irresponsible property development and construction in recent years: the revelation that some developers had failed to adequately clad their buildings following the Grenfell fire. The Grenfell fire in 2017 killed 72 people and left people homeless after the poor quality cladding on the outside of their West London tower block accelerated the spread of flames after a fire broke out.
Developers have since been instructed to replace poor-quality cladding at their own cost – something that some developers have objected to. Nevertheless, the public is generally speaking in favour of getting developers to cough up. It is developers, after all, that benefit from the installation of cheap and dangerous cladding. Developers need to take this into consideration when investing in buildings. Thorough and professional safety audits need to be carried out on all prospective properties. Historic negligence should not serve to fuel future disasters.
Property development is all too often considered a way to make money at the expense of tenants and purchasers. This has to stop in 2022: a new degree of care needs to be taken. Saving money by purchasing cheap and unsafe construction materials or engaging in cut-throat construction tactics will only come back to bite you in the end. Even in a market as morally grey as property investment, you tend to reap what you sow.