The Future: Insurance & Retail Brands Will Become Landlords

Straight talk from the Editor’s keyboard;

The John Lewis Partnership Group announced an interesting plan over the weekend; some of their JLP and Waitrose sites will feature up to 10,000 homes, a mixture of flats and houses. So far so good, as anyone can see High Street retailing is pretty much finished, so becoming a social landlord is a smart move. But there’s more. JLP are also planning to offer some houses and flats top their staff at capped rents, plus offer them fully furnished with JLP furniture, white goods, gadgets and decor.

In the space of a decade JLP employees, or partners as they are technically called, have gone from being some of the best paid in the retail sector, thanks to the annual profit share bonus scheme, to people who might be compared to farm workers from the 1960s. In those days, the house – and its fixtures, fittings, plus a sack of spuds every 3 months and 2 pints of milk per day – often came with the job. How do I know that? My Dad had exactly that deal.

Some might say we were privileged to have a free house. But it had no bathroom or fridge, ill-fitting windows, black mould on the walls and an outside toilet. Obviously JLP employees renting a house or apartment will have modern heating, doorbell security, smart meters, TVs, speaker bars and plush, vegan-weave sofas to relax upon.

That of course, raises the possibility of insuring all those nice furnishings and gadgets and insurance brands need to approach big retailers now because this social landlord model is likely to become the norm by the end of the 2020s.

SUPERCITIES WILL PROVIDE A CAPTIVE MARKET

Part of the globalist agenda is the creation of smart cities, which like smart motorways may see a few deaths from e-scooter crashes, or gang-related knife attacks, each year, but will be hailed by the elite as a roaring success.

The beautiful thing about hi-tech hi-rise, is that the surveillance tech of door entry systems, CCTV, swipe to unlock ride-sharing, public transport, GP surgeries and more enables insurers to micro-manage the risk profile of individuals. Yes, you will need data sharing consent, but the Plandemic – sorry, Pandemic – has proved that people are more or less willing to go along with all sorts of tracking and teracing, so long as it’s for the greater good.

In the Netherlands, Vivat/NN Group has already become a landlord, buying a co-living block in Arnhem. In the UK Legal & General has really accelerated its social housing plans this year, with new developments planned from London to Yorkshire. The key theme is sustainable living and insurers and brokers alike can make money from the stampede to greener living.

That could be insuring e-bikes or scooters, maybe PAYG cover on shared ownership/leased electric cars. Perhaps cyber cover will be more important when people are living and working from the same pod, or studio flat? Older residents will need comprehensive healthcare plans to get around the incompetence and rationing of treatments by the NHS.

The stated aim of the Great Reset is that you wil own nothing, but be happy. So brokers who develop online policies that cover rented things, or experiences, on a PAYG basis, will reap the rewards long term. By tapping into the digtal data, and truly understanding the lifestyles of their policyholders as landlords, not just insurers, the potential for identifying the safest risks increases dramatically.