The Ethical Property Company

How is it social?

The company has set up The Ethical Property Foundation aimed to offer tenants additional support.  The Foundation was highly commended in the charity awards 2007.

Through its Making Waives Fund, the company invites shareholders to waive their dividends.  This Fund is used to help new struggling tenants.  Money from this fund is also used to promote the development of an ethical exchange (Ethex) in order to increase opportunities for investment in ethical equity.

The company tightly monitors and manages the environmental impact of all its buildings and aims to invest in areas of high social exclusion and by doing so contribute to the regeneration and improvement of those areas.

What is its business model?

The Ethical Property company supports innovative and progressive organisations working for social change by taking care of their property needs. It runs centres as focal points of social change, and organisations in their centres benefit from favourable rents, flexible and sympathetic management and facilities designed to meet their needs. Organisations also become part of a working community where they can exchange skills and ideas under one roof.   

All the company's centres are refurbished to a high environmental standard and they actively manage these to reduce energy consumption, water use, and to promote sustainable travel and responsible waste management.  In the long term the Ethical Property company aims to build a network of centres across the United Kingdom in support of the social change movement.  

The Ethical Property Company offers property management consultancy services, and long-term property management, to social change organisations in their own centres, supporting these organisations to make the best use of their property for society and the environment. 

The company now owns and manage 15 centres around the country in Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester, Oxford, and Sheffield, as well as having set up Ethical Property Europe, who own and manage two centres in Belgium.    

Its history

The company was founded in 1998, after several years of research and development, by Andrew King (an ex-Board member, and outgoing company secretary) and Jamie Hartzell (managing director and non-executive board member).  King and Hartzell pooled their existing property assets, and together with the help of Triodos Bank and Malcolm Lynch Solicitors, a share issue was launched in May 1999.  Another share issue in 2004 raised over £4.4m. The company invested these funds in setting up nine new centres from Leeds to London.

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