Property Focus: The Interview – Kenton Whitaker

In our new series of interviews with top professionals from across the property sector, TheBusinessDesk catches up with Kenton Whitaker, managing director of Seddon Homes.

What are your views of the current state of the commercial property and property development markets?

Seddon Group are developers and contractors, so we have quite a broad view across the sector. We know there are a lot of people sitting on their hands.

Although some more distressed cases are coming to the market, those who can just about afford to sit tight are still doing so. If you have the cash and the appetite to build things, now is a good time to be in the market as many of the supply chain pressures that have beset the industry for the past few years have completely disappeared – just as you would expect.

It will be very interesting to see at what point the larger house builders restart their building programmes as their stock runs down – that will be a good indicator that they have inventory and cash back under control.  

What key challenges and pieces of legislation do you think will most affect your sector over the coming months?

Two of the bigger challenges will be the ever-increasing burden of planning regulation (including CIL) and the upward-only revisions to building regulations – this will continue to suppress viabilities on schemes and make it progressively harder to get schemes off the ground in a weakened market.

Why do you think the North West is a good place to do business?

There are a number of local authorities in the region with a very positive approach to the private sector and who are willing to be innovative about their delivery.

What is your favorite building/development in the North West and why? 

I have to say our latest Zenith development Gatley is excellent. We have contemporary four-bed homes which have a great blend of modern design and practical family living spaces – a combination that doesn’t always go hand-in-hand. I also really rate Crosby leisure centre which we built – another fantastic modern design with great execution.

If you could improve anything in the region, what would it be?

I think we have a shortage of quality living environments which results in fierce price distortions of the local housing markets.

I would like to see more excellent places to live in the region and I’m not sure this can be achieved purely through focus on the urban cores.

What was your first job and how did you enter your current line of work?

First job was as a junior surveyor – I ended up in development after working across a number of types of building work and enjoying development the most.

What do you most enjoy about your job?

The variety – both in terms of the types of project we work on and the people that you meet. Seddon Group is a great employer and their broad business base allows people to gain a huge amount of experience.

What barriers have you faced during your career and how have you overcome them?

In any customer focused business I think it’s always a challenge to establish and maintain a consistent level of excellent service and at the same time control costs. 

The only way to deliver is to have excellent people right the way through the team.  Finding and retaining the right team is hard work but very rewarding when you see things going well.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it probably is a duck. 

And the worst?

The era of boom and bust is over.