International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.
As we move toward 2025, the UK real estate market is navigating a complex and ever-evolving landscape. Investors must weigh evolving factors such as political uncertainties, shifts in rental demand, and the impact of economic pressures on borrowing costs. Here’s five areas to watch in real estate in 2025:
The political landscape continues to present risks for real estate in 2025. Key uncertainties include potential changes in global leadership, especially within major economies like the United States, and the ongoing repercussions of the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union. Challenges around trade deals, tariffs, and economic isolation remain a threat to market confidence and transaction volumes.
For property investors and developers, these uncertainties make long-term planning increasingly complex. In a volatile political climate, many may adopt a more cautious approach, focusing on adaptable strategies to mitigate risk and anticipate shifts in policy.
The rental market is expected to maintain strong momentum as homeownership remains difficult for many. The discontinuation of government schemes like Help to Buy, combined with high mortgage rates and inflation, have left first-time buyers struggling. Consequently, rental demand, particularly in urban areas, is set to grow, with residential rents seeing double-digit increases.
Traditional buy-to-let investors continue to feel the pinch from a changed tax framework, increased regulations and a tougher compliance environment, reducing rental supply. This can only further elevate rents by reducing supply and underscores a shift towards Build-to-Rent developments. These purpose-built projects are designed with long-term renters in mind, providing stable and attractive returns for investors.
Interest rates will remain a key driver for the real estate market in 2025. Although expectations are for gradual reductions, borrowing costs will stay elevated compared to pre-pandemic norms due to broader economic pressures, such as high global debt and inflation concerns. For homebuyers, developers, and the buy-to-sell market, this means persistent challenges in accessing affordable financing and moving forward with large-scale investments.
The construction industry remains vulnerable to high inflation, despite anticipated base rate reductions. Rising costs for materials and labour have already strained smaller contractors, and a resurgence of inflation could see further financial stress. The introduction of a stricter regulatory environment under the Building Safety Act adds another layer of complexity and cost, potentially leading to delays in project timelines and further contractor difficulties.
Co-Living continues to gain traction in dense urban areas like London, appealing particularly to young professionals seeking flexible, community-driven living arrangements. These modern spaces provide not just accommodation, but a lifestyle—with shared amenities and communal environments fostering a sense of connection.
Investors are recognising the long-term growth potential of the Co-Living sector, which aligns with broader trends towards affordability and flexible living options. As housing costs remain high, Co-Living is poised to complement traditional rental models and become a key part of the housing market in 2025 and beyond.
Conclusion
The UK real estate market in 2025 is set to navigate a complex landscape shaped by political, economic, and regulatory factors. From political uncertainties and shifting rental dynamics to interest rate pressures and construction challenges, adaptability and strategic foresight will be key for investors. Emerging trends like Co-Living underline the sector’s evolution, offering flexible, community-driven solutions that resonate with changing market needs. As these dynamics unfold, the focus on resilience and innovation will define success in an increasingly demanding environment.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. As with any investment, there are inherent risks involved in investing in any of our products and money invested may both increase or decrease in value and your capital is at risk. There is no guarantee that you will be repaid all of your invested capital.
No Ingenious Group company provides or is authorised to provide investment or tax advice.
It’s manifesto week so we thought we should join in and launch our very own Business Relief manifesto, setting out our commitments to advisers and their estate planning clients.
Just like the politicians, we believe it is time for a change and new ideas. So, we have developed a clear plan and have taken bold action to reform our solutions in order to deliver a secure future for Britain’s beneficiaries. On the doorsteps we hear that estate planning clients are looking to maximise the wealth they can pass to their families when they die, so they can enjoy financial security.
Clients want peace of mind that their estate planning will be a success and not fail as others have done in the past. Here is how we will do that;
Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. As with any investment, there are inherent risks involved in investing in any of our products and money invested may both increase or decrease in value and your capital is at risk. There is no guarantee that you will be repaid all of your invested capital.
No Ingenious Group company provides or is authorised to provide investment or tax advice.
To learn more about IEP Apex, and its additional care service, click below, and one of our team members will be in touch.
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.
Traditionally, financial plans are considered through the lens of agreeing an objective at the outset. In the BR world, most customers approach the investment seeking a clear objective: mitigation of the impact of Inheritance Tax (IHT) on their investment upon death. If a client sets out this objective, failing to mitigate the effects of IHT on death would mean, at least in part, failing to achieve a good outcome.
In addition to the primary objective, the emphasis on considering the specific client’s needs means financial plans must consider the bigger picture. So what should this look like for BR clients? In addition to considering investor risk tolerance and the general suitability of an investment, this could be summarised in the following way:
This approach raises the bar for manufacturers, financial advisers and research firms and might require advisers to consider different solutions to those previously advised.
As with any investment, inherent risks are associated with an investment in a BR-qualifying service. The Consumer Duty guidance puts further emphasis on the importance of proactively avoiding foreseeable harm to an investor and assessing the limitations of an investment.
An inherently unpredictable risk for BR customers is that of an investor dying before IHT mitigation is achieved (BR investments must be held for two years before they qualify for IHT relief). Many investors considering BR investments are older, and with this, the risk of dying within the qualifying period becomes higher. It is an obligation for all parties, including investment managers, financial advisers and research firms to consider how this foreseeable harm could potentially negatively impact a financial plan, resulting in a poor investor outcome. The question then arises as to what can be done to protect the client against this eventuality. A possible solution is to consider insurance that covers the IHT liability for the first two years of the investment before it qualifies for BR. However, this would need to be weighed up with the impact of potentially higher charges, looking to find an option that protects growth while keeping costs and charges at a reasonable level, ensuring the best possible outcome for the investor. This is explored further in the next section.
Thinking about fair value of BR-qualifying services, how comprehensively is the best possible outcome met, relative to the cost, and how can this be evidenced? In the case of the outcome specified earlier, the checklist could include the following:
If a service provides a better return for investors than other services with comparable investment strategies, this is a reasonable indicator of whether the service is of fair value.
The same method can be used to assess the insurance value mentioned above. This might be prohibitively expensive, thus eroding the value of assets to the point that it is not worth it for an investor to gain the desired IHT mitigation before the two-year qualifying period. However, if that cost is kept to a minimum or even included at no additional cost to the investor, offering immediate IHT mitigation, then this becomes a key consideration in assessing the fair value of a service.
Published in Professional Adviser and Financial Investor 24
As the shoots of Spring arrive, the general rhetoric is that the worst of the cost of living crisis could be behind us, or it is at least losing some of its recent bite. However, recession or no recession, it seems likely that we will feel the pinch for quite some time.
Many in this cohort are retired and don’t need to worry about the potential of job market instability or lack of wage growth. They may also be mortgage-free, so rising interest rates are not of great concern. While volatility might see their savings dip, they can often weather turbulence, not being required to call on lump sums for house purchases, school fees, and the like. Spending is often discretionary.
While this all paints a rather rosy picture, the real sting for retirees comes from inflation, especially in the context of relatively low interest rates, something that hasn’t been an issue throughout the economic downturns of recent memory. High inflation impacts all demographics, and fuel and general living costs have a painful impact on people operating a tightly controlled (even if very comfortable) budget. At the same time, interest rates remain low, and there is little opportunity to offset the increased outgoings with higher income.
This environment can create short-term pessimism that results in long-term financial planning inertia – compounded by a generation that has not experienced this set of economic circumstances for a long time. For clients whom advisers believe should be considering estate planning, putting off decisions can severely impact a positive outcome for them and their families. Between April 2022 and January 2023, Inheritance Tax receipts grew by almost 10%1. House prices have increased since the pandemic2, even if they have fallen marginally of late, and so more estates will creep above the Government’s nil rate band of £325,000. What’s more, the nil rate band is frozen until 2026 and so won’t take into account any asset price inflation. At the same time, people are very conscious of the high cost of care and don’t want to lose control of their savings. The average cost of a care home is £600 per week, which rises to over £800 in a nursing home3.
Still, considering the threat posed by inertia alongside a few more positive pieces of news and data, perhaps now isn’t such a bad time to re-visit those seemingly intimidating financial plans. Household energy bills will offer some respite from the cost of living during the warmer months and inflation is widely reported to have reached a peak, falling for the third month in a row to 10.1%4 in the year to January, with more declines forecast to the end of the year. Your estate planning clients might remain cautious, but at the same time, begin to consider that not acting upon an estate plan holds the most significant risk of not achieving the most desirable outcome.
We have discussed this issue with financial advisers; they have shared a few tips to help overcome inertia with later-life clients.
1 HM Revenue & Customs, 21 February 2023
2 Propertydata.co.uk, 18 January 2023
3 Age UK, February 2023
4 ONS, 15 February 2023
Important information
The information, data and analyses presented herein do not constitute investment advice; are provided as of the date written; and are subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, but Ingenious Capital Management Limited (hereafter; ICML) makes no warranty express or implied regarding such information. Nothing within this document constitutes investment, tax, legal or other advice. Our investments are considered high risk and investment decisions regarding them should be made with careful consideration. Except as otherwise required by law, ICML shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages or losses resulting from, or related to, the information, data, analyses or opinions or their use.
Investments with particular tax features will be dependent on your personal circumstances and tax rules may change in the future. Past performance is no guarantee of current or future returns and the investor may receive back less than invested. The price of investments and the income deriving from them can go down as well as up and are not guaranteed. To find the full details of the risk factors and associated mitigation techniques of the fund(s), please refer to the relevant fund documents. Ingenious Capital Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under FRN 562563. Registered Address: 15 Golden Square, London, W1F 9JF.
Advisers often talk to us about how their clients don’t view estate planning as something that is relevant to them, or that they simply believe there are too many negative associations for them to act, meaning they miss out on the benefits of early planning. While some estate planning solutions can provide poor outcomes and don’t reflect a good value service to clients, this doesn’t have to be the case with modern solutions. Here are the most common challenges we come across and how we believe you can support estate planning clients to overcome them and achieve a positive outcome.
Many in this cohort are retired and don’t need to worry about the potential of job market instability or lack of wage growth. They may also be mortgage-free, so rising interest rates are not of great concern. While volatility might see their savings dip, they can often weather turbulence, not being required to call on lump sums for house purchases, school fees, and the like. Spending is often discretionary.
While this all paints a rather rosy picture, the real sting for retirees comes from inflation, especially in the context of relatively low interest rates, something that hasn’t been an issue throughout the economic downturns of recent memory. High inflation impacts all demographics, and fuel and general living costs have a painful impact on people operating a tightly controlled (even if very comfortable) budget. At the same time, interest rates remain low, and there is little opportunity to offset the increased outgoings with higher income.
This environment can create short-term pessimism that results in long-term financial planning inertia – compounded by a generation that has not experienced this set of economic circumstances for a long time. For clients whom advisers believe should be considering estate planning, putting off decisions can severely impact a positive outcome for them and their families. Between April 2022 and January 2023, Inheritance Tax receipts grew by almost 10%1. House prices have increased since the pandemic2, even if they have fallen marginally of late, and so more estates will creep above the Government’s nil rate band of £325,000. What’s more, the nil rate band is frozen until 2026 and so won’t take into account any asset price inflation. At the same time, people are very conscious of the high cost of care and don’t want to lose control of their savings. The average cost of a care home is £600 per week, which rises to over £800 in a nursing home3.
We hope this article will help you to bust some estate planning myths with your clients to help them make the right decision for them. Please download our client-friendly estate planning myth buster booklet to help with your conversations.
*TER June, 2021
**Gov.uk, HM Revenue & Customs, 28 July 2022
Important information
The information, data and analyses presented herein do not constitute investment advice; are provided as of the date written; and are subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, but Ingenious Capital Management Limited (hereafter; ICML) makes no warranty express or implied regarding such information. Nothing within this document constitutes investment, tax, legal or other advice. Our investments are considered high risk and investment decisions regarding them should be made with careful consideration. Except as otherwise required by law, ICML shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages or losses resulting from, or related to, the information, data, analyses or opinions or their use.
Investments with particular tax features will be dependent on your personal circumstances and tax rules may change in the future. Past performance is no guarantee of current or future returns and the investor may receive back less than invested. The price of investments and the income deriving from them can go down as well as up and are not guaranteed. To find the full details of the risk factors and associated mitigation techniques of the fund(s), please refer to the relevant fund documents. Ingenious Capital Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under FRN 562563. Registered Address: 15 Golden Square, London, W1F 9JF.
Speaking to advisers for many years now has allowed me to realise that a consistently challenging task they face is not only establishing the best route to take when offering estate planning advice to clients, but also in getting clients to accept it and then act. Without action, the best laid plans of both mice and financial planners won’t be successful and deliver value.
The reasons cited for this inertia commonly group around two systemic problems.
The first obvious one is the client normally has absolutely no idea when they are going to die. This poses an issue as nobody knows exactly how long the client has to act so generating any sort of urgency is impossible. It’s also due to this uncertainty in timing, nobody has any idea which plans would ultimately prove successful. Life insurance is the key exception to this as it would offer an immediate impact, but taking out Whole of Life insurance cover poses an indefinite ongoing financial liability; the exact opposite of the kind of clarity the clients would be after before taking action. Therefore any plan that can’t offer the certainty of being effective from an IHT perspective from Day 1 will be unattractive as it will inspire a lack of confidence and invite a delay in action. Either issue would prove to be a road-hump; both together are a cul-de-sac.
The second common issue is that if the client doesn’t have a crystal ball, they can’t know exactly what is in store for their financial fortunes and so can’t compute what their final IHT liability will be when they die. If they don’t know this, how can they possibly establish how much they can afford to part with or how much insurance cover they actually need (to afford)? Again, if clients neither have ongoing access to all their funds or know exactly what they can afford, they will find it near impossible to commit to a plan that deprives them of their assets in some way.
For these two main reasons, discussions over estate planning can all too often be held without the agreement of actually taking action on a specific plan. And as we all know, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”
So what’s important to solve this?
Ultimately if the plan you recommend to clients works speedily and allows clients to retain access to all their assets, you will have removed both of the main issues they find stops them from taking action.
Many in this cohort are retired and don’t need to worry about the potential of job market instability or lack of wage growth. They may also be mortgage-free, so rising interest rates are not of great concern. While volatility might see their savings dip, they can often weather turbulence, not being required to call on lump sums for house purchases, school fees, and the like. Spending is often discretionary.
While this all paints a rather rosy picture, the real sting for retirees comes from inflation, especially in the context of relatively low interest rates, something that hasn’t been an issue throughout the economic downturns of recent memory. High inflation impacts all demographics, and fuel and general living costs have a painful impact on people operating a tightly controlled (even if very comfortable) budget. At the same time, interest rates remain low, and there is little opportunity to offset the increased outgoings with higher income.
This environment can create short-term pessimism that results in long-term financial planning inertia – compounded by a generation that has not experienced this set of economic circumstances for a long time. For clients whom advisers believe should be considering estate planning, putting off decisions can severely impact a positive outcome for them and their families. Between April 2022 and January 2023, Inheritance Tax receipts grew by almost 10%1. House prices have increased since the pandemic2, even if they have fallen marginally of late, and so more estates will creep above the Government’s nil rate band of £325,000. What’s more, the nil rate band is frozen until 2026 and so won’t take into account any asset price inflation. At the same time, people are very conscious of the high cost of care and don’t want to lose control of their savings. The average cost of a care home is £600 per week, which rises to over £800 in a nursing home3.
All this means that advisers and clients alike can have confidence that should their advice be accepted and the client takes action not only should their IHT issue be alleviated immediately but they will have confidence that they will retain full access and control over the investment indefinitely. This will mean clients should be fully confident to proceed and there is no need for inertia.
A speedy service will promote speedy action to deliver a speedy outcome.
If you haven’t considered IEP Apex for your client’s IHT requirements, now is the time to do so.
*Ingenious survey – PFS Retirement and Later Life Roadshows – May 2022
Age and health restrictions apply. Refer to brochure for limits.
To learn more about IEP Apex, and its additional care service, click below, and one of our team members will be in touch
Do you receive third-party support for your research and due diligence?
93% of advisers told us that the speed of IHT mitigation, as well as maintaining access and control over client assets, are the primary motives when recommending Business Relief qualifying investments (BR) to clients1
At Ingenious we have launched a new BR-qualifying service which provides peace of mind with IHT mitigation from day one of share allotment via insurance cover which is paid for by the Manager.
Many in this cohort are retired and don’t need to worry about the potential of job market instability or lack of wage growth. They may also be mortgage-free, so rising interest rates are not of great concern. While volatility might see their savings dip, they can often weather turbulence, not being required to call on lump sums for house purchases, school fees, and the like. Spending is often discretionary.
While this all paints a rather rosy picture, the real sting for retirees comes from inflation, especially in the context of relatively low interest rates, something that hasn’t been an issue throughout the economic downturns of recent memory. High inflation impacts all demographics, and fuel and general living costs have a painful impact on people operating a tightly controlled (even if very comfortable) budget. At the same time, interest rates remain low, and there is little opportunity to offset the increased outgoings with higher income.
This environment can create short-term pessimism that results in long-term financial planning inertia – compounded by a generation that has not experienced this set of economic circumstances for a long time. For clients whom advisers believe should be considering estate planning, putting off decisions can severely impact a positive outcome for them and their families. Between April 2022 and January 2023, Inheritance Tax receipts grew by almost 10%1. House prices have increased since the pandemic2, even if they have fallen marginally of late, and so more estates will creep above the Government’s nil rate band of £325,000. What’s more, the nil rate band is frozen until 2026 and so won’t take into account any asset price inflation. At the same time, people are very conscious of the high cost of care and don’t want to lose control of their savings. The average cost of a care home is £600 per week, which rises to over £800 in a nursing home3.
Additional benefits with IEP Apex:
If you haven’t considered IEP Apex for your client’s IHT requirements, now is the time to do so.
1 Ingenious survey 2022
2 Tax Efficient Review, June 2021
Age and health restrictions apply. Refer to brochure for limits.
To learn more about IEP Apex, and its additional care service, click below, and one of our team members will be in touch.
Do you receive third-party support for your research and due diligence?
With 66% of advisers believing their own research and due diligence processes will need to change in light of Consumer Duty1, now is the time to act.
The market for BR-qualifying services has traditionally been homogeneous, with planning success and good outcomes contingent upon investors surviving two years or having otherwise to pay for additional insurance cover (which could be as much as 13% of the capital invested). Does your third-party research and due diligence only focus on services like this?
Things have changed
Ingenious has launched a new Business Relief (BR)-qualifying service which provides peace of mind with IHT mitigation from day one of share allotment via insurance cover which is paid for by the Manager2. You no longer have to wait two years for BR qualification to become effective. Whilst your investors may not always feel they need IHT mitigation from day one, why take the risk? The financial consequences for their loved ones are significant. Better to be covered than not.
As a result, the risk of planning failure due to early death is now entirely avoidable, with no negative consequence. So firms will need to update their research and product panels to ensure this is considered as part of their suitability assessment.
Here are two considerations to be made when selecting BR solutions moving forwards;
1 Ingenious survey 2022
2 Age and health restrictions apply. Refer to brochure for limits.
To learn more about IEP Apex, and its additional care service, click below, and one of our team members will be in touch.