Since Sumitomo Forestry joined the Bywater journey in February 2023, we’ve grown rapidly, adding brilliant people to our team and five exciting, timber-focused projects to our portfolio. Each of them is designed to reduce embodied carbon and raise the bar on sustainable innovation.
Our biggest challenge? Finding exceptional projects that meet our rigorous sustainability criteria and make commercial sense. We’re looking for that rare mix: visionary design, low-carbon potential, and a strong return profile. If we’d found another dozen that fit, we’d have snapped them up.
But the UK investment market has been stuck in a holding pattern. Sellers are holding out for yesterday’s prices; buyers are waiting for value to return. It’s a standoff, and one that’s slowed down the kind of bold, sustainable deals we want to make.
Heading into 2025, we hoped lower interest rates and a boost in economic confidence after the 2024 elections would stabilise things. But instead, we hit a new barrier: Trump tariffs.
The ripple effects from Washington have been felt far and wide. Global investment committees are hitting pause, holding off on major decisions. For context: while UK commercial property investment surged to £15.2 billion in Q4 2024 [1], the highest quarterly total since mid-2022, it dropped 45% the following quarter to £8.1 billion. [2].
At Bywater, this translated into a slower first half than planned. We secured one brilliant living scheme in central London, but three other anticipated acquisitions have yet to land.
Still, we’re staying the course. We’re doubling down on the search for projects that offer real potential for timber-led, low-carbon development. And we’re getting creative.
We’ve proposed several joint ventures with landowners, offering to fund projects entirely, using our own equity and our lender relationships. Sellers can use land as equity and earn strong returns without investing additional capital. It’s a model designed to make things happen – even in a sluggish market.
Because when traditional approaches stall progress, innovation leads the way.
We’re committed to putting the future in place, one timber project at a time. And we’re always open to fresh ideas.
If you’re a landowner, investor, or developer with a vision that aligns with ours, or just curious about how timber is reshaping real estate, let’s talk.
The future isn’t waiting. Neither are we.
