Persimmon Plc became the first U.K. homebuilder to report profit of more than 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) as the government’s Help-to-Buy policy bolstered sales.

The York, England-based company was among the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100 index of stocks on Tuesday after it announced a 13 percent rise in pretax profit. Help to Buy accounts for about half of Persimmon’s sales and selling homes built on cheap land to buyers benefiting from the interest-free loans helped the company achieve record margins.

ASHRAE’s 2018 International Green Construction Code® (2018 IgCC®), a joint initiative of the U.S. Green Building Council, International Code Council, ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society aligns the technical requirements of ANSI/ASHRAE/ICC/USGBC/IES 189.1-2017-Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low Rise Residential Buildings, with ICC’s multi-stakeholder IgCC.

Goals of the updated code are to help governments streamline code development and adoption and improve building industry standardization by integrating the two previously separate guidance documents. As a result, the 2018 IgCC is now a unified code that emphasizes adoption, ease of use and enforcement for building projects.

Reprinted courtesy of ASHRAE, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

In September 2017, the California legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown enacted Senate Bill 35 (SB 35) to streamline housing development in cities that are not meeting their housing needs. SB 35 is aimed at easing California’s severe housing shortage and affordability crisis but was highly controversial due to concerns about loss of local control over housing development. In the year since SB 35 was enacted, several development projects in the San Francisco Bay Area have invoked SB 35 to bypass local opposition or cumbersome permitting timelines.

Reprinted courtesy of Pillsbury Law attorneys Robert Howard, Alexander Walker and Matt Olhausen
Mr. Howard may be contacted at robert.howard@pillsburylaw.com
Mr. Walker may be contacted at alexander.walker@pillsburylaw.com
Mr. Olhausen may be contacted at matt.olhausen@pillsburylaw.com

Homes and other properties contain an increasing number of IoT sensors and smart devices that provide data relating to their environment. Cozify wanted to demonstrate how that data could be used to create comfortable indoor conditions for people, and save money while doing so.

U.S. new-home construction rebounded last month to the best pace since August while permits rose to a seven-month high, a sign homebuilding is potentially stabilizing even as higher prices and borrowing costs pose headwinds.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in October for the first time in seven months, suggesting demand is stabilizing at a lower level as available properties become less scarce.

The Occupational Safety and Heath Administration published the final version of its new crane rule on Nov. 9, which covers training and certification for crane operators. The rule is a revision of a draft version published in May 2018, and it removes the need to certify operators by crane capacity rather than just type of crane.

Insurance companies, homebuilders, and city and county officials are still assessing residential and commercial building damage after Hurricane Irma tore through South Florida on Sept 10, but in general, the stricter building codes enforced after Hurricane Andrew did their job.

“Florida has the strongest wind-load building code in the United States, and by and large the code is paying dividends,” says Peter Dyga, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) Florida East Coast Chapter, located in Coconut Creek. “But hurricanes are very powerful storms. Property damage is 25 times worse for a Category 4 storm and 50 times worse for a Category 5 storm than the damage caused by a weaker Category 2 storm.”

Reprinted courtesy of Joanna Masterson, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders unexpectedly rose in October, registering the first gain in five months amid falling lumber prices and solid demand, according to a report Tuesday from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.

When contractors talk certification, they’re often referring to apprenticeship, craft training and safety qualifications for field workers. But at a time when the industry is eager to fill jobs and skills gaps across the board, from the office to the field, some firms are getting creative to help all types of construction employees reach the next level of leadership.

Associated Builders and Contractors’ Wisconsin Chapter is already ahead of the game. Through its award-winning Construction U certificate programs, the chapter provides practical, management-level education for local employees who learn how to better plan, organize, communicate and monitor their daily activities, while leveraging both the hard and soft skills necessary to overcome obstacles with increased confidence.

Reprinted courtesy of Lauren Pinch, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

Amazon.com Inc. has shown a boundless desire to put its Alexa smart-home devices in every nook and cranny of people’s houses. Just last week, it announced a raft of new gadgets, including a microwave and clock.

Now it’s making its first bet on a homebuilder.

The Seattle-based Internet giant is investing in a $6.7 million fundraising round for Plant Prefab, a California company that manufactures modules that can be assembled quickly into a home at a job site. The wager is being made through the Alexa Fund, a pool of capital Amazon created in 2015 to back startups working on new uses for voice technology.