2017 – even bigger, even better for Inspired

Are you nervous about the year ahead? Brexit, Trump, house prices, the global economy? I know I am.

But I’m also excited because in 2017 everything will change. And we’re good at leading through change – we’ve been through so much of it. The old ‘world order’ (particularly in homebuilding) was looking out of date and ripe for some ‘Inspired’ disruption.

In 2016, Inspired led the movement towards higher quality, more efficient and more affordable accommodation. We pioneered improvements in standards, technology and legislation – adapting to the new world and evolving lifestyles. We completed a bunch of awesome projects. We were in the papers, on TV and won awards on the way. We even helped to re-brand Croydon.

So – let’s do it again in 2017. I’m not sure exactly what our greatest achievements will be – a lot of that will be up to you – but if they’re going to be anywhere near what we achieved last year, they will be pretty extraordinary – and that’s an exciting prospect.

Umm – what shall we do?

Shall we help Housebuilders to bring forward new homes by acquiring future phases in their entirety off-plan and then improving them? Sure, why not, let’s do it!

Shall we help smaller investors to continue to invest in buy-to-let? Yes please. We and many other developers need BTL to get new projects off the ground and deliver much needed new homes for young professionals and first time buyers. We have numerous innovative and supportive friends on www.propertytribes.com and in what is now a £2tn BTL sector. Let’s defend them!

Shall we solve the housing crisis? I think we should. Let’s drive home our campaign for efficient legislation and a better planning system. We can build more homes if we cut the red tap – I would love us to be spending more time with our customers creating solutions for them instead of filling in so many forms for lawyers and local authorities.

Can we also continue to deliver great value homes and exceptional returns for our investors? Absolutely.

And if we can get through all of the above before the year’s out, we might just have time to establish ‘co-living’ as an asset class and launch our crowdfunding and VR (and maybe AI and AR) platforms. The world’s our oyster…

But then what? Well I guess that’s up to us. Is that scary or exciting? Probably a bit of everything but hopefully more of the latter.

Come on, let’s do it, let’s make 2017 the best year ever!

Martin Skinner – Founder and CEO, Inspired Asset Management / Inspired Homes