Guidance

Property and Financial Professional Services Framework 2022 to 2026 - Lot 1: Property Professional and Technical Services - scope of services

Published 27 June 2022

Applies to England

Homes England means Homes England (the name adopted by the Homes and Communities Agency), or anyone acting on behalf of Homes England that is seeking to invite suitable Suppliers to participate in this procurement process.

In respect of land and property assets held, to be acquired, or invested in (by way of third parties) by Homes England and other Public Bodies including but not limited to; residential, commercial and industrial, health, leisure and retail property, agricultural and mixed-use property.

An overview of the Property Professional and Technical Services we are seeking to procure includes:

Scope of services

1. Property advisory services
2. Land and property agency services
3. Estate and facilities management services
4. Property investment, appraisal and compliance services
5. Valuation services
6. Lead consultant and project management services
7. Development structures and partnering
8. Office accommodation
9. General services
10. Design Quality Assessment Programme

1: Property advisory services

1.1: Provide strategic advice to support setting policy objectives and delivery options including:

• market research and market advice to inform strategy development.
• forecasts on future movements in key markets and relevant indices such as House Price Index, commercial property rents, yields, and cost inflation

1.2: Sector Specific Property Market Assessments.

1.3: Advise on new and emerging policy areas and support the development of new programmes and delivery models including:

• Recoverable Investment programmes
• infrastructure investment and delivery programmes
• Public Body land asset transfers, acquisitions, and disposals

1.4: Develop and advise on standardised documentation to support the delivery of projects and programmes, including guidance notes, financial models, appraisal software, procurement, and legal documentation.

1.5: Review projects, strategies, or programmes to ensure that delivery objectives, financial targets and regulatory requirements are achieved.

1.6: Advise on contingent assets and liabilities negotiations including: clawback, apportionments, overage agreements, and restrictive covenant releases.

1.7: Provide information or advice to other consultants who are supporting Homes England or Other Public Sector Bodies (OPSB) - for example, in the preparation of planning applications.

1.8: Provide advice on Registered Providers (or other Regulation definition, as appropriate) and local authority rental policies.

1.9: Provide professional mediation, expert witness, and other specialist advisory services in connection with Homes England’s property and investment activities.

2: Land and property agency services

2.1: Provide a full property agency service for the acquisition, disposal, and letting of land and property assets and investment and joint venture vehicles acting jointly with other agents when required.

2.2: Provide advice upon the acquisition of land and buildings by agreement or compulsory purchase and advise on potential acquisition and partnering approaches to unlock sites including options/promotions, conditional and unconditional freehold purchases, joint ventures, and collaboration agreements. Liaise with other advisors including multidisciplinary framework consultants and solicitors to undertake full due diligence on site acquisition.

2.3: Identify acquisition opportunities, appraise, review, and short list properties against specified criteria, negotiate Heads of Terms and advise on the purchase price, level of compensation and terms of any existing occupations.

2.4: Undertake soft-market testing of property and investment assets and delivery options with prospective delivery/investment partners and members of Homes England’s Dynamic Purchasing System Framework.

2.5: Based on market intelligence, prepare marketing strategies, assessing sale and rental values to achieve sales and minimise rental voids.

2.6: Prepare marketing materials, due diligence information, Development and Planning Briefs for development opportunities, including pre-sale valuation (where required).

2.7: Market land and property and investment assets including joint venture opportunities.

2.8: Advise and make recommendations to the client through the acquisition, procurement or disposal process including:

• providing guidance on the basis of disposal, respond to queries, appraise bids, prepare scoring matrices, provide feedback that can be shared with bidders
• reviewing the ability of prospective partners to deliver the proposed project or programme, the operational capacity of partners and financial programming
• verifying the identity and creditworthiness of bidders for fraud prevention and
• providing an Agency compliant franking valuation supporting the market value of the proposed transaction.

2.9: Support the legal process of disposal through due diligence up to legal completion working with the appointed legal team.

2.10: Provide support in undertaking commercial and legal negotiations with prospective partners.

2.11: Provide advice on marketing, affordability, and service charge issues.

2.12: Provide Landlord and Tenant advice as part of acquisition, disposal, and general portfolio management assessments.

2.13: Support the negotiated disposal and packaging of assets (real or contingent) to achieve portfolio level transfers.

2.14: Provide property auction services including pre-auction valuation to set auction reserve price. Marketing and auction service (on-line/ballroom as applicable) together with post auction franking report outlining the process, market interest and confirming final purchaser details.

2.15: Demonstrate how you would bring forward and identify opportunities of market failure where Homes England intervention may be required.

3: Estate and facilities management services

3.1: Negotiate and provide advice on lease renewals, rent reviews, covenant releases, synergistic (marriage) values, rating assessments and appeals, and the calculation of service charges, and all associated aspects of property management.

3.2: Provide a full building surveying and inspection service including dilapidations and reinstatement valuations.

3.3: Provide Conservation and Heritage survey support including prepare and agree Conservation Management Plans and Homes England’s biennial return to Historic England, work with Local Authority Conservation Officers and Historic England.

3.4: Manage all aspects of health, safety, and the environment in premises or parts of premises where maintaining, repairing and ensuring responsibilities are retained for example common areas, plant rooms, and grounds.

3.5: Provide a range of facilities management services including the management of soft services - for example:

• cleaning
• security
• reception maintenance of buildings
• plant
• equipment

3.6: Provide managing agent services to derelict and vacant properties.

4: Property investment, appraisal and compliance services

4.1: Advise on strategic and portfolio investment, and asset management across a range of asset classes and tenures.

4.2: Provide investment analysis, decision making tools, and advice on structuring delivery options and investment portfolios including: Joint Venture and partnering arrangements.

4.3: Review national, regional, sub-regional, and local markets and undertake financial modelling and development appraisals to:

• prepare financial viability assessments
• identify and assess strategies for the development, acquisition or disposal of assets, projects or programmes.
• build financial models to support both individual and multi-site investment opportunities

4.4: Appraise asset and development opportunities for all tenures and housing types including 25 and 30 year models of borrowing and rental streams.

4.5: Advise on and prepare funding strategies for projects, programmes, and infrastructure including potential sources and terms of funding, lender/investor requirements, balance of risk and reward, and gap funding requirements.

4.6: Provide fully interpretable models/appraisals that can be used to assess delivery options and support the business case to secure project approvals (including Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and HM Treasury) for individual developments, infrastructure, and multi-site delivery arrangements.

4.7: Advise the client on emerging and best practice in capital and revenue funding issues - for example:

• cross-subsidy
• Affordable Housing funding
• Section 106/CIL contributions
• land gifting
• custom build
• community land trusts
• co-operative and mutual models
• co-investment
• mechanisms for recycling Public Body funding

4.8: Produce sensitivity analyses.

4.9: Produce reports and analyses of stakeholder financial returns and critical drivers including Internal Rate of Return, developer profit, and Net Present Value.

4.10: Provide advice on investment and development finance and funding variations at regional, sub-regional and local levels including local authority finance, and options for stock transfer and stock reinvestment or new build.

4.11: Provide advice on alternative options for delivering affordable and intermediate housing.

4.12: Provide advice on administration, investment recovery, and potential exit strategies for equity and loan investment assets such as shared equity products, and rental products.

4.13: Provide support on procurement, due diligence, contracting, and monitoring of projects.

4.14: Identify property related financial, and commercial risks, and recommend approaches to their management.

4.15: Provide advice on the capacity and capability of prospective or current Public and Private Body partners.

4.16: Providing reports for the Agency as an investor, sponsor or funder and associated third party funders where required.

5: Valuation services

5.1: Provide full Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Red Book compliant valuation services which follow RICS best practice guidance notes (for example, Global Standards 2017 with Mandatory application of VPGA8 Para 2.6 (c) on Sustainability reporting metrics. To include but not limited to:

• land and property portfolio valuations, alongside individual and portfolio loan, and equity investment valuations to support Homes England periodic asset valuation exercises
• valuation for financial reporting in line with the requirements of the RICS Red Book (incorporating the latest best practice guidance notes) and Treasury Guidance
• valuation of individual or portfolio assets for secured lending purposes in accordance with the Red Book including development loans, land loans, corporate facilities, and refinances
• valuations including Red Book Valuations to support site acquisition or negotiated disposals
• valuations for secured lending to support the range of grant, loan and equity investment activities undertaken by Homes England
• valuations including Franking Reports or Franking Letters to support open market disposals
• compulsory purchase order (CPO), rating, and special assumption valuations

5.2: Valuation advice to support the transfer of land and property to the Agency from Other Government Departments and Public Bodies to support the delivery of Homes England programmes.

6: Lead consultant and project management services

6.1: Liaise as necessary with client, consultant, legal, and project teams.

6.2: Provide regular project reports to an agreed schedule.

6.3: Act as lead consultant, co-ordinate and manage other consultants appointed by the client.

6.4: Manage sub-consultants where required to deliver coverage across all areas of the Framework and across all services.

6.5: Provide a project management service including programme, risk, and communications.

6.6: Provide Principal Designer services as required under the Construction, Design and Management (CDM) Regulations in accordance with Homes England Principal Designer brief.

7: Development structures and partnering

7.1: Provide a full range of property services and advice associated with all types of development structures and partnering arrangements including leading on negotiations with third parties, legal advisors, and other technical consultants.

7.2: Review best practice in the market and summarise recommendations.

7.3: Review and reporting on existing and proposed partnership arrangements, including governance, day to day management, and monitoring.

7.4: Provide property market, valuation, development appraisal, and financial modelling services associated with a range of development structures and partnership arrangements for acquisition, investment, and grant funding.

7.5: Involvement throughout the due diligence process of projects, liaising with other disciplines such as legal and financial advisors as required.

8: Office accommodation

8.1: Provide full office design service including stack and space planning, space utilisation surveys, and studies where required.

8.2: Provide strategic and programme support in relation to Homes England accommodation strategy including:

• strategic and programme support (strategic case and full business cases)
• premises search
• lease and licence negotiations
• design
• space planning
• project management
• construction management of fit-out works

9: General services

9.1: Provide senior representation to attend Homes England property or sector forums.

9.2: Attend Homes England Property Framework management meetings.

9.3: Provide miscellaneous property and housing related advice.

9.4: Maintain a full working knowledge of public competition, tendering and financial rules. Alongside best practice in relation to HM Treasury Guidance, ESG and emerging themes such as Sustainability Valuation Metrics.

9.5: Develop and deliver training courses relevant to Homes England and other partners as requested.

9.6: Provision of secondees to Homes England on a temporary basis in line with IR35.

9.7: Research, monitor and advise impacts of emerging legislation and best practice guidance relating to the specific areas of services delivered.

9.8: Assist the client with the preparation of good practice guidance and research and help the client in the promotion of this material.

10: Design Quality Assessment Programme

10.1: The production of ‘pre-assessments’ of extant outline consents against the 12 considerations of Building for a Healthy Life (BHL), in order to ascertain the number of considerations that are able to be satisfied by projects that are already in the Homes England sites’ pipeline.

10.2: Pre-assessments can then form part of the Disposals briefs.

10.3: The undertaking of assessments of bid submissions for projects, against the 12 considerations of BHL, in the light of the pre-assessment work. All assessments must be conducted impartially and with consistency across all regions of England.

10.4: The production of an annual audit of project Disposals, taking account of the agency’s adopted design quality assessment programme, providing a report on progress and recommendations for improvement.

10.5: It is anticipated that these tasks will need to be subcontracted to a specialist organisation.

Enquiries

Email: enquiries@homesengland.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 1234 500