Welcome back to the UK Build to Rent Q&A series. We hope you’re enjoying the series & remember, if you’ve missed any of the interviews so far, you can find them all here. This Monday, we’re sharing our next Design Q&A with Brendan Geraghty from Geraghty Taylor. We hope you enjoy it.
Geraghty Taylor have been a leading voice in the UK’s Build to Rent Sector since its inception. Their BTR Brand and Design Guides are at the heart of their ongoing delivery of over 5,000 new homes across the UK and Ireland.
For them, defining and controlling the customer experience is the key to the creation of healthy communities, excellent urban and building design, predictable operational costs and consequently sustainable revenue.
About
Brendan Geraghty is one of the founding members of Geraghty Taylor. He brings a broad range of senior level experience drawn from projects in the UK and around the world and is a residential council member of the Urban Land Institute.
He leads Geraghty Taylor’s work in master planning, residential design and branding, as well as the practice’s ongoing R&D. He has huge energy with an attuned strategic sensibility and was instrumental in bringing forward the Livinhome flexible house type.
Q: What is the most overlooked or under designed aspect of a BTR development and what can you tell us about why it has such importance?
The most overlooked aspect of BTR design is the requirements that too much attention is paid to the definition of the product (building) and not enough on the customer needs and operational requirements.
This can add cost and complexity to a BTR building, reduce its ability to be flexible and meet future market and customer needs. It is important that these three elements form the foundation to a BTR brief that in turn will allow Design Teams to produce an integrated solution.
At Geraghty Taylor, our unique methodology Brand Before Building does just that. A brand speaks to both Client and Customer and will describe the product, emotional and support characteristics of a BTR offer.
The building should be a derivative of a BTR brand and not the other way round.
Q: If you could recommend 1-3 developments for someone to visit that would provide a masterclass in BTR best practice design – which would they be and what makes them so unique?
A: Dolphin Square – nearly 100 years of British BTR and still very relevant. It is a building with history and authenticity, it was progressive, still innovating and it has some great stories.
The Apollo in Washington DC, by Bazzuto. This building is a great example of what I think would be a popular BTR offer in the UK.
10 Degrees, Croydon. Greystar’s volumetric towers set a new benchmark for the construction industry and for BTR. Geraghty Taylor have long been advocates of MMC and believe that Offsite and BTR want the same things – a quality product, a thoughtful customer experience, intelligent standardisation in design, quicker construction and integrated operational and maintenance requirements. We predict BTR will lead the drive for Offsite in residential real estate.
Q: Without mentioning Amenity space – what do you think we will see as defining features of a BTR’s unique selling point once the sector has reached further maturity in areas of steep BTR competition?
A: Great customer service is the first and most important amenity – this will be one of the important areas where customers will judge BTR operators. Keeping on top of customer needs, carefully observing trends in society and then adapting the BTR offer to meet these changing requirements will be key in future competition.
Customers will want to know what a BTR operator stands for and what they can expect from them – a strong brand narrative will be very helpful in communicating to customers.
From a product perspective – architects and designers must design buildings with enough in-built flexibility to respond to the changing needs of customers and their Clients.
BTR is in a very good place to provide good support and leadership for the emerging 3rd space market (the space between work and home), this along with a ‘greening market’ increasingly concerned with well-being, should provide all the clues needed for a competitive BTR amenity strategy.
Q: Often development designs need to be scaled back to achieve better financial metrics. What is the most difficult part of creating a BTR development that both meets the tenants needs & investors budget & how do you ensure you reach that balance?
A: This is a challenge for all and there are many competing requirements in BTR viability. From a design perspective BTR is a long income model dependant on customer satisfaction to underpin value. This requires the balanced integration of Capex and Opex costs with customer requirements.
One of the most difficult parts of creating a good balance with all of this is getting clarity from Investors, beyond the very important ROI, about the nature and character of their BTR Offer and to match this to the detailed customer data and customer needs.
One of our first objectives is to understand the exit strategy – this will have a strong bearing on how the design will evolve and how far the integration of Capex and Opex will go.
Another important question is whether projects are treated singularly or as a portfolio with shared standards and benchmarks. With the latter is much easier to also integrate Offsite technologies and commit to a smaller supply chain that will support the BTR operator in a long-term relationship.
Mature BTR operators take greater control of the product and what they want from it and this helps to manage costs and risk. On the customer side good data around operational and customer needs helps designers to create better buildings. (Again, a brand can be very helpful here).
Q: What has been your biggest lesson in BTR design over your career?
A: Listen to your customer.
Q: Just because it’s such a hot topic – to rubbish chute or not to rubbish chute?
A: Chutes.
Q: Anything else you would like to add on a personal note?
A: With its focus on the customer and the way it embraces technology, I think BTR is going to change forever, residential real estate in the UK. This is very welcome and is already happening and continue to accelerate. I think it will be a very enjoyable ride.
Thank you to both Geraghty Taylor & Brendan for their assistance & input to our Q&A series. We hope you found the responses insightful. We still have plenty of Q&A content to share with you over the coming weeks, if you’re enjoying the series, please subscribe or like us on Linkedin to make sure you don’t miss the latest content.
UK Build to Rent Team
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