Latest news with #TrinityFinancial
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
In Charlestown, smaller ambitions for big housing development
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'We don't have a lot of five-acre sites in the city,' Dillon said. 'This is the kind of project that we need.' Advertisement There's a lot to like about the site — its proximity to the T, the historic Charlestown neighborhood, and downtown, said Abby Goldenfarb, Trinity's senior vice president. And with five acres comes a chance for some creative landscaping and other community-focused features, such as a public plaza and lawn, athletic fields, and space for arts and early childhood education. But despite the site's size, it comes with a host of restrictions, Goldenfarb said. Trinity spent nearly a year pushing to shift a state service road that runs immediately behind the site to a spot closer to the nearby Route 1 on-ramp. But after many months of conversations with state transportation officials and Boston Sand & Gravel, which also uses the access road, that idea fell through. Advertisement Affordable housing developer Trinity Financial has proposed an 85-foot, 125-unit affordable apartment complex with an urban plaza and lawn for the project's first phase. ICON Architecture Trinity's Cutting the total number of units allows Trinity to pursue wood-frame construction over a podium — a more affordable option than building taller — and also still allowed opportunity for financial support from the city and state. 'We wish we were able to start construction a few years ago,' Goldenfarb said. 'Construction costs have gone up, so we're trying to build the most economically feasible project we can in the first phase, just to start the momentum.' Related : City officials asked Trinity to explore whether they could build affordable condos in the first phase, but the project needed more governmental subsidy than was available, Goldenfarb said. MassHousing's CommonwealthBuilder program, for example, has per-unit funding caps of between $150,000 and $250,000 for units set aside for households making between 70 percent to 120 percent of the area median income. Advertisement 'The cost differential between what it costs to build a unit and how much subsidy you're able to get for it was just too large to finance,' Goldenfarb said. 'We also didn't want to be in a position where we ... had to sell very, very expensive market-rate units in order to make the affordable units work.' So Trinity started exploring affordable rental apartments — a property type it has long built — and cut down the total number of units in the first phase. Trinity Financial executives Kenan Bigby and Abby Goldenfarb at the Austin Street site in 2023. Lane Turner/Globe Staff Likely investors for the first phase include low-income housing tax credit investors, who consider Boston an 'extremely attractive' market, Goldenfarb said. She's expecting strong interest, but is aware that Trinity is also competing against property owners selling their buildings at rock-bottom prices. 'A lot of owners are selling buildings at a discount, so we're going to have to work really hard to make a building that investors want to take lease-up risk on and construction risk on,' she said. Dillon, Boston's housing chief, said the city recognizes the difficult building environment and is working project-by-project to help developers problem solve — whether that's 'value engineering' or allowing them to safely store materials they've stockpiled. 'It is not an easy time for Boston, or most major cities right now, to to continue to advance an affordable housing and income-restricted housing agenda, but we're not going to stop,' Dillon said. 'Boston is committed to increasing our housing stock and ensuring that a very high amount of the housing that we're creating is income-restricted and affordable to our residents.' Advertisement Catherine Carlock can be reached at
Bloomberg
07-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Freehold Versus Leasehold in UK Real Estate
Subscribe to Merryn Talks Money on Apple Podcasts Subscribe to Merryn Talks Money on Spotify In this episode of the Merryn Talks Money UK housing mini-series, hosts Merryn Somerset Webb and Money Distilled author John Stepek delve into the complexities of freehold and leasehold properties with guest Anthony Emmerson, who has worked in the mortgage industry for 20 years and is currently director at Trinity Financial.
Bloomberg
06-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Merryn Talks Money: Freehold Versus Leasehold in UK Real Estate
In this episode of the Merryn Talks Money UK housing mini-series, hosts Merryn Somerset Webb and Money Distilled author John Stepek delve into the complexities of freehold and leasehold properties with guest Anthony Emmerson, who has worked in the mortgage industry for 20 years and is currently director at Trinity Financial.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Miliband's net zero targets threaten to trigger surge in evictions
Labour's green targets for landlords could trigger a surge in evictions and rent rises, property experts have warned. Ed Miliband today unveiled proposals that would require rental properties to achieve an energy performance certificate (EPC) score of C by 2028 for new tenancies. The targets would leave landlords less than three years either to upgrade their homes' efficiency or be banned from letting tenants at all. But brokers have warned that it is 'nonsense' to expect landlords to meet the targets before the deadline. Announcing the proposals, the Energy Secretary claimed tenants had been 'abandoned and forgotten as opportunities to deliver warm homes and lower energy bills have been disregarded and ignored'. But Anthony Emmerson, of broker Trinity Financial, said: 'It is complete nonsense to think that most rental properties could have their EPC rating increased to achieve a C level over such a short period of time, partly because we have an old housing stock, but also because we simply do not have enough contractors to do the huge amount of work required. 'Even if it were possible, it would cost tens of thousands to fix many of these properties and also mean many tenants needed to move out of the property while the work is completed.' Timothy Douglas, of estate agent trade body Propertymark, also warned of a 'huge risk' that landlords would seek to use break clauses to empty properties before carrying our renovations. He added: 'Many landlords will feel pressure to get the works done. They will either throw in the towel completely, or there is going to be upheaval for tenants. 'There will be short-term pain for tenants and landlords until it's all relieved – short-term pain for long-term gain.' Renters' rights groups welcomed the proposals but warned that Labour's 'worthy ambitions could be left in ruins' if the party did not amend the controversial Renters' Rights Bill 'to protect renters from eviction and rent rises' due to property improvement targets. Rents already hit a record high of £1,344 a month last year as landlords sold up in response to tougher regulation and tax rises. An estimated 8,425 households in England were served eviction notices in the three months to September, according to Ministry of Justice figures, piling more pressure on Britain's rental crisis. Under current rules, a property must have a score of E to be let to tenants. Less than half of all private rental homes in Britain currently have an EPC score of C or higher. Labour estimates a typical landlord would have to spend between £6,100 and £6,800 to comply with the targets. But costs for upgrades could reach as high as £15,000 per property under caps proposed by ministers, with an 'affordability exemption' of £10,000 which could be applied based on lower rents of council tax. Michelle Lawson, of broker Lawson Financial, said: 'The costs to implement such changes could be significant for landlords with little to no return personally. 'Are there also enough suitably qualified trades to install any upgrades? This is just going to further push landlords away from the beleaguered private rental sector by them selling up and exiting and then further detrimentally impacting supply and demand.' Chris Norris, of the National Residential Landlords Association, said the cost of upgrading rental homes would 'see significant costs passed on to tenants as landlords recover the very significant potential costs of retrofit'. He added: 'This will inevitably be made worse if there is a rush to carry out more work on more than 2 million rented properties in four years or less, there simply isn't enough capacity in the system to prevent costs soaring.' Labour is separately consulting on long-awaited reforms to EPCs. A poor grade can knock thousands off a home's value and a Telegraph investigation found that the assessments were often based on 'guesswork' and that inspectors with just three days' training. The results of the consultation are due next year. Suggestions include rebalancing assessments to favour homes with smart meters and heat pumps. The number of buy-to-let properties for sale in London hit a 10-year high last year as landlords fled in response to tougher regulation and Labour's capital gains tax raid. Experts said a rising number of investors were abandoning the sector in the face of higher mortgage rates, more red tape and the threat of further tax reforms. Under Labour's Renters' Rights bill, landlords would need to apply for a court order to evict a problem tenant. The ban on Section 21 evictions means it could take a landlord up to 55 weeks to regain access to their property due to current court backlogs. Paul Shamplina, founder of the Landlord Action campaign group, said: 'Landlords are leaving in their droves and the fear of the Renters' Rights Bill and the ending of Section 21 and the severe court delays landlords are suing it before losing it.' The Government was approached for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
