PROPTECH-X ‘Proptech & Property News’: Off Plan transactions to hit record high | Arturo expands AI offering

PRESS RELEASE: Why “Off Plan” Property Transactions Will Hit Record High in 2022 – NAPB

Record numbers of homes sold will be “off plan” by the end of the year, a leading property group has predicted. 

The National Association of Property Buyers believe the number of properties available for purchase before they have been constructed will soar to levels never witnessed before.

According to data 37% of new homes sold in England and Wales were sold off plan, up from 35% in 2020 but down from the peak of 47% in 2017.

Jonathan Rolande, from the National Association of Property Buyers, expects the numbers to rise sharply in upcoming weeks. 

He said: “The lockdown blip has seen the numbers sold off plan reduce but we expect these to rise quickly to match and overtake the previous high of 47% in 2017. City centre apartments will lead the increase with increasing numbers sold to owner occupiers rather than investors. Buyers love the certainty of fixing a price on a home at today’s value, no matter what the market does in the future during construction.” 

Mr Rolande, the director of House Buy Fast, added: “Older buyers often take advantage of part exchanging the family home for a brand new apartment or smaller, more manageable house. The PX process gives guarantees unavailable in the ‘standard market’ eliminating viewings and fall throughs. But buyers shouldn’t forget that new builds are premium products and are priced accordingly – there is often better value to be had in the second hand market.

“Buying off plan is a decision made out of a mix of personal preference and necessity, very often people commit early because they simply cannot find what they want elsewhere thanks to the incredible shortage of property coming to the market.”

Statistics show that in 2021 24% of detached homes were sold off plan (up from 21% in 2020), 33% of semi-detached homes (up from 31%), 45% of terraced homes (up from 41%). Off plan flat sales fell to 44% from 50% in 2020. (Reason – Covid hitting city living.)

Buyers of off-plan paid a record £1.1bn in deposits in 2021, compared to £348m in 2007.  Today most off plan sales are to owner occupiers when before 2016 most off plan sales were driven by investors. Cotswold District had more off plan sales than anywhere else – 86% of new homes completed there last year. In the past London has dominated the off plan sales market. 

Breakout: According to Jonathan there are a number of pros and cons of buying off plan. They include:

Pros:

* You can secure a property at today’s price. If property prices go up you gain.

Eg. A property bought off plan in Jan 2021 at £350,000 would after 9.6% annual rise (per UK HPI) be worth around £383,600. (In theory.)

* Possibility of getting a good deal. Developers often sell the first off plan properties on a development at a keen price to get some money in.

* Possibility to part exchange your existing house or benefit from some kind of assisted move programme offered by the developers.

* You may be able to take advantage of Government incentives, such as Help to Buy.

* You have a formal agreement to buy so the sale is very unlikely to fall through. You can start planning the move with confidence. Less likely to be affected by a broken chain.

* New homes are built to the latest designs and have the latest tech. They are also much more energy efficient.

Cons:

* New homes are often sold at a premium known as the new build premium. So this may eliminate any profit due on an off plan to price rises.

Research by Unlatch says that the premium paid by new build homebuyers increased by 10.8% in the last year with these homes now commanding 40.2% more than existing homes. (Interesting stat, though seems a bit high?)

* You don’t know what an off plan house or the area will look like until it is finished.

* There may be delays in completion. (Current reasons/excuses – labour shortages, supply chain issues, weather, Covid, Brexit, energy crisis etc.) Developer contracts usually have a ‘get out clause’ if they need to delay – but you can’t. 

Delays could cause problems with selling your old home (broken chain etc.), arranging removals, maybe needing temp. accommodation. Your mortgage offer may also expire – most only last 6 months, sometimes less. 

* New period properties often have a lack of character and reputation for not being very well built.

* You may be living on/near a building site for several months/years.

* New build properties often have a lot of faults/ snagging issues.

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PRESS RELEASE: Arturo Expands Offering with an Intelligent Portfolio-Level Risk Engine

Arturo aims to elevate insurers from property-level decision-making to better respond to the changing climate, resilience and vulnerability of the property ecosystem

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Arturo, the proptech company that delivers intelligent analytics from individual property to portfolio, today announced a new portfolio-level risk engine designed to help property insurers segment, monitor, manage and respond to risk across an entire portfolio.

This dynamic, role-based portfolio management solution pairs policy addresses with AI-derived property characteristics to give insurers intelligence at scale. The solution layers various lenses, including a property lens and a portfolio lens, to deliver tailored views for the user to make tactical and strategic decisions across the policy continuum. From visualizing risk in underwriting, flagging change detection for renewals, and triaging claims, insurers are able to leverage these insights to build a stronger book and nurture healthy combined ratios.

“Today’s insurers are measured on one KPI above all: the combined ratio–the measurement of gains against losses,” said John-Isaac “jC” Clark, CEO of Arturo. “The damaging effects of climate change coupled with an increasingly competitive marketplace are challenging insurers, who often have access to tremendous amounts of data but grapple with how to operationalize it and adjust their business activities in response. Arturo’s engine enables insurers to think big for portfolio-level decisions but zoom in for point-level tactical decision-making to boost their combined ratio and decide with intelligence.”

This solution will be powered by Arturo’s latest, sophisticated deep learning models and it aims to help insurers solve the following use cases:

• Automated underwriting: Monitor changes to a property including the addition of structures (e.g., pool, trampoline, decks, solar panels and more) and changing risk factors (e.g., roof deterioration, roof-tree overlap, fall-in risk, and others) to automate bind and renewals and divert those that need further validation to elevated underwriting professionals or inspectors.
• Premium coverage optimization: Quantify the number of underinsured properties in your book by comparing policy information to current property details and risks.
• Proactive risk mitigation: Send targeted communications to policyholders that could benefit from mitigative actions to decrease their risk and improve their experience.
• Monitoring trends: Analyze and plan at the local level to get insights on new patterns like distribution of brands, policy types, or geographic concentration of attributes including roof condition, solar panels, and tree overhang.
• Claims triage: Explore claims distribution geographically, associate ongoing claims to weather events, and prioritize resources based on the level of need to reduce costs and increase customer loyalty and retention.
• Resilience planning: Plan for worst-case scenarios and underwrite risks that complement your tolerance. Understand material distribution and frequency to prepare and capitalize for costs around claims.

Arturo is inviting select carriers who are interested to participate in our beta program prior to the general release later this year for the United States, Canada and Australia. Please visit www.arturo.ai for more information or visit our booth exhibit 346 at the PLRB Claims Conference and Insurance Services Expo in San Antonio April 3 through 6.

About Arturo

Arturo combines AI and machine learning models with property images to help businesses decide with intelligence from the property to portfolio level. Across the insurance, lending, securities and real estate markets, Arturo empowers customers with on-demand, accurate property characteristics and predictive analysis to tackle the biggest property challenges with efficiency, accuracy and confidence. Discover more at arturo.ai.