UK’s first Cladding Dataset for Residential Properties in Tall Buildings now available from WhenFresh

WhenFresh has teamed up with an army of 600 RICS-qualified surveyors to create the first property-level cladding dataset, providing current cladding status for each of the 485,234 residential properties within tall Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) across the UK.

Since the tragic Grenfell fire on 14th June 2017 and the ‘cladding crisis’ that has since developed, the owners, mortgage lenders, insurers, and developers of properties in tall Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) throughout the UK with some form of cladding have found themselves facing massive, unforeseen financial exposure.

Whilst the news frequently reminds us how the affected homeowners find themselves as ‘mortgage hostages’, unable to sell and struggling to secure viable insurance, the exposure faced by the financial services sector has, until now, been much less well-documented or understood. However, the fact is that lenders, insurers, and institutional property investors have largely been ‘flying blind’ as they have not had the means to accurately assess their potential risk/exposure to this hugely significant issue.

Key property risk factors, such as flood and subsidence, have routinely been assessed when deciding whether to offer mortgages or how to price insurance premiums. However, prior to June 2017, cladding simply wasn’t something that anyone considered. This is why little or no information about cladded buildings had been captured, until now.

WhenFresh’s unique cladding dataset is the result of a major project started in 2020 (during the first pandemic lockdown) which initially involved a wide range of remote inspection tools and data sources (such as satellite imagery, drone footage, building and planning records, etc…), and has subsequently been enhanced on an ongoing basis by physical surveys and other inputs – all meticulously scrutinised by an army of over 600 RICS-qualified surveyors.

Now, following six months of in-market testing with a group of existing clients, WhenFresh has launched the unique dataset to the wider market, providing property-level cladding data for each of the 485,234 properties within MDUs of 18 metres or more in height throughout the UK. The surveyor team use their expertise to assign each property within these MDUs to one of three categories:

GREEN – Building has no cladding. (Specifically: EWS1 form recorded in Cladding Database with classification A1, A2 or B1 or considered to be out of scope as per RICS’s Cladding Guidance Note)

AMBER – Building potentially has cladding, merits EWS1 inspection. (Identified as potentially in scope, as per the RICS’s Cladding Guidance Note, no EWS1 form held currently)

RED – Building has cladding. (EWS1 form recorded in Cladding Database with classification A3 or B2, or other known adverse factors from alternative sources)

This means that mortgage lenders, insurers, local authorities, central government, housing associations, asset managers, and other parties are now able to readily access this unique cladding data alongside any other property data attributes they may need from WhenFresh, either in flat file format or via API in real time.

For example, a lender can now match their whole existing mortgage book to this new cladding dataset via WhenFresh, to carry out detailed analysis at individual property level.

Max Griffiths, Group Head of Quantitative Risk at Together Money states: “WhenFresh’s wall cladding dataset enabled Together to truly assess our limited exposure to external wall cladding risk across the full book. Working with the WhenFresh analytics team has enabled us to establish a clear set of actionable data points that support our prudent approach to lending, and their data enrichment has helped us in preparing data for securitisation issuances where additional reporting requirements around ESG has been required.”

WhenFresh co-founder and CEO Mark Cunningham adds: “We’re delighted to be able to bring this cladding dataset to market alongside our existing property data assets, not least as it provides key risk insights into these 485,234 properties which are jointly worth in excess of £50 billion. There are obvious applications for mortgage lenders and insurers of course, but we’re already seeing interest from local authorities, central government, housing associations, asset managers, and other sectors too.

“This new dataset provides lenders with the means to fully understand how their mortgage books are affected by cladding issues, down to individual property level, so they can identify where risks lie and make better decisions moving forward. New mortgage applications can also be pre-screened against this cladding dataset, and it has now become a key component of our WRAP service, where a wide range of data variables are applied to packages of mortgages being prepared for securitisation, to give surety to the buy-side.

“It is obviously a big deal for insurers too, as they can now better understand property risk across their existing policy portfolios and can access this cladding dataset, along with all the other data we make available via API, to drive more accurately priced, instant quotes for new insurance applications.”

To find out more about this Cladding Dataset and/or to book a demo, please contact us today.