Build to rent push would unleash £30bn for housing

Aaron Morby 9 years ago
Share

Developers, pension funds and housing associations claim the next Government could count on £30bn of private finance if it promotes housing for long term rent.

This would be enough to build more than 150,000 homes and ease pressure on the rental market – the fastest growing tenure in England.

In an open letter to the next government, supported by the British Property Federation, the Better Renting for Britain campaign says the Build to Rent sector could play a pivotal role in solving the housing crisis.

It calls for a five-point stimulus to create an American-style rental market where single companies own large portfolios of homes.

Build to rent stimulus

  • Councils should identify how much rented housing they need and allocate land to it. It can ensure that housing is rented and not sold by agreeing covenants with developers.
  • Idle public land should be used to generate income for councils by developing rental blocks.
  • A modernised approach to affordable housing which recognises the wholly different funding structures relating to build to rent compared with housing for sale.
  • The sector to continue operating as a free market, which is vital to securing investment.
  • Work with us to promote best practice, better inform the public and help improve the perception of the entire rented sector.

“We want to create more professionally managed rented housing, purposefully designed and built with the long term occupier in mind,” the letter said.

The offer of longer-term tenancies, inflation linked rents and shared amenity spaces would be made possible because investors were seeking to earn an income – rather than speculating on house prices going up.

“We need genuine acceptance that Build to Rent differs from traditional housebuilding,” the campaign adds, referring to the fact that schemes built for rent are currently treated by planning policy in the same way as those built for sale.

The campaign wants the government to make councils set out the quantity of rental housing needed locally and then partner with developers to build some of it on public land.

This could create income for local authorities. It also wants planning rules modernised to reflect the fact that building for rent is wholly different from building to sell.

The group also wants a commitment to market economics to ensure vital new investment isn’t put at risk.

Martin Bellinger, chief operating officer of Essential Living, said: “Smart phones, taxi apps and the sharing economy have disrupted many things in recent years and now it’s our turn to positively disrupt the housing market.

“Renting can and should be about making people’s lives easier, offering them value for money and long-term certainty enabling them to create a home. By taking a long term view, we can do this and offer the next government a vital additional source of finance.”

Nick Jopling, executive director for Property at Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, said: “By supporting ‘build to rent’, the future British government can encourage companies like ourselves to help increase housing supply and improve standards of living in the rental market.”

Latest news

Police ban mobile cranes from roads over Easter

Plant hire bosses livid as forces across the country extend abnormal load embargoes
22 hours ago

Director jailed for exposing workers to asbestos

Ten tonnes of asbestos insulating board stripped out by unqualified workers
1 day ago

Site labour rates start rising again

Industry's biggest payroll firm says "it feels like things could be turning round"
1 day ago

Council finds extra £33m for Buckinghamshire link road

South East Aylesbury Link Road costs soar by nearly 30% to £147m
1 day ago

Quartet win £490m North West & Central railway works deal

Skanska, Kier, Octavius Infrastructure and Story Contracting bag major projects deal
1 day ago

Unite Students plans first major mixed-use scheme

Developer's first mixed BTR and PBSA project to be built in Edinburgh
2 days ago

Galliford Try names new finance director

Rentokil's Kris Hampson joins contractor to replace Andrew Duxbury
1 day ago

Council boss hits out at bat threat to £274m road job

Natural England could scupper scheme due to be built by Ferrovial
1 day ago

Hydrogen-fuelled diggers to be allowed onto highways

Government to raise barrier to widespread use of hydrogen fuelled plant in construction
2 days ago

Plans in for £118m Government hub in Darlington

Work pencilled to start later this year on new home for 1,450 civil servants
2 days ago

New contractor highlights Henry Construction jobs on website

New firm lists jobs by failed contractor to show its experience
2 days ago

Contractors line up for £2.6bn Anglian Water AMP8 deal

Eight big names land places on pioneering @one Alliance
3 days ago

McAleer & Rushe bags first major later living project

Work to start this month on 167-flat Royal Tunbridge Wells project
2 days ago

Kier starts first all-electric prison houseblock job in Kent

Next-generation fully electric T60 prison houseblock to be built at HMP Elmley
2 days ago

Keepmoat sees better times ahead in housing market

Profits dip in 2023 despite construction of record number of new homes
2 days ago

Vistry signs partnership deals for 1,900 mixed tenure homes

West Sussex former airfield and Newmarket sites to break ground
3 days ago

Turnover at Wates tops £2bn for first time

Construction division exceeds £1bn turnover as average contract value hits record high of £48.3m
3 days ago

L&G looks to sell Cala Homes in exit from house building

Insurance giant reported to be preparing to offload 3,000 homes-a-year developer
4 days ago

Multiplex profit almost trebles as margin hits 5.5%

Revenue jumps 20% to £675m as big London scheme complete
3 days ago

TopHat puts plans to open huge Corby factory on hold

Advanced manufacturing facility was due to employ 1,000 people
3 days ago

Laing O’Rourke lands Calderdale hospital job

Enabling works to start by the end of this year at West Yorkshire site
3 days ago

Go-ahead for £475m Sunderland film and TV studios

Work to start this year on first phase Corwn Work studios
3 days ago

Willmott Dixon set for £20m Stockport Community Hub

Planning decision expected in June on Marple leisure and health clinic project
3 days ago

Police hunt for blundering dumper truck thief

Raider drove into a fence before getting stuck on a bank
3 days ago

Beattie Passive files administration notice

Passivhaus pioneer has been in business for more than ten years
4 days ago

McAlpine set for £50m space and tech centre

Northumbria Uni sign pre-con deal for new satellite research hub
4 days ago

VolkerFitzpatrick seals £34m Kent road viaduct

Work to start next year on Sturry Link Road near Canterbury
4 days ago

Eight win £600m Scottish civil engineering framework

Balfour, Farrans, Graham and Morgan Sindall win major works lot
4 days ago

Site engineer crushed to death by excavator

22-year-old victim died just months after graduating from university
6 days ago

NG Bailey fined £135,000 after hospital site death

Worker died after striking overhead beam while navigating a mobile elevating work platform
7 days ago

Contractor services