Rapleys Launches New Retrofit Service

Strategic property consultancy Rapleys has launched a new dedicated ‘Retrofitting’ service with the appointment of Titus Wing heading up the team.

The service will serve clients across both residential and commercial portfolios with the national team building on its existing expertise acting as retrofit assessors, coordinators and designers as well as strategic partners, ensuring that every retrofit project conforms to funding requirements, is designed for long term energy performance and executed to the highest standards.

Retrofitting is set to see a greater acceleration in demand thanks to legislation such as Awaab’s Law, Building Safety Act and MEES meaning assets need to be upgraded to comply in order to meet standards. Those that do not comply will see landlords and investors facing fines or be unable to transact their assets on top of waning tenant demand for poorer quality stock.

Titus will be drawing on his strong track record focusing on the decarbonisation of social housing stock in his new role, utilising his eight years of specialist experience working for a number of practices including NetZero Collective, Stantec and Places For People. Having trained at agencies JLL, Knight Frank and Savills, Titus has the benefit of acting both client-side and as a consultant, giving him a unique insight into the challenges posed and the solutions Rapleys can offer.

Titus will be working with both the national Housing Consultancy team, led by Partner Martin Gladwin, and the wider Building Consultancy division incorporating strategies for a range of asset types – both traditional and alternative. He will be based in Rapleys’ Cardiff office, which was launched earlier this year and has further growth plans in the city.

Martin Gladwin, Partner and Head of Housing Consultancy, said: “Our Housing Consultancy team has gone from strength to strength in the last few years and, following changes to the Building Safety Act and the emergence of Awaab’s Law, we are being instructed on thousands of stock condition surveys every month by Housing Associations, with many of the buildings old and requiring significant retrofitting strategies. We already had a strong level of expertise in the team to tackle such work and we saw the opportunity to bring in Titus and launch a dedicated retrofitting service at the same time.”

Titus added: “Rapleys’ Housing Consultancy team and Building Consultancy Division is one of the strongest in the market and, as such, there’s a huge opportunity to join forces and not only derisk Housing Association properties but put in full decarbonisation and retrofitting strategies to bring them above the Decent Homes Standard and future proof them, whilst also updating and adding value to commercial stock.”

Simon Harbour, Head of Building Consultancy at Rapleys, added: “The team will also be supporting a range of sectors as the move to upgrade offices and other commercial assets gathers momentum. We will continue to grow our building consultancy teams further having brought in educational and commercial specialists over the last few months and as demand for building and project management-led work accelerates. On top of legislative requirements, there is also a very real opportunity currently for older assets to be upgraded via retrofitting to create value.”

Rapleys has been on a strategic expansion plan for the last two years and continues to add experts and services in anticipation of client demand. It has already added over eight Partners since the beginning of the year across Retail, Planning and Building Consultancy.