Henley axes £300m BTR strategy with director exit
Private equity investor Henley has scrapped its £300m build-to-rent investment strategy in favour of ramping up development.
Henley has dropped its BTR scheme acquisition and funding plans after two years, following the departure of investor director Jonathan Ivory.
Private equity investor Henley has scrapped its £300m build-to-rent investment strategy in favour of ramping up development.
Henley has dropped its BTR scheme acquisition and funding plans after two years, following the departure of investor director Jonathan Ivory.
Ivory joined Henley last February to spearhead the US fund’s UK BTR investment debut, with a plan to invest £300m. He left the company this month to join Fiera Real Estate’s rental housing business Packaged Living and his role will not be replaced.
Henley has now ditched the property management division, which was tasked with buying partially consented sites and either selling into an in-house fund or acquiring on a forward-fund basis.
Instead the investor will focus on securing land and bringing this through the planning process for residential for sale and rental and has moved the BTR operations to the development team.
BTR investment will now sit under Warwick Hunter, Henley’s managing director for development and asset management. The business said it has a number of sites that will be developed as BTR.
It has just completed the acquisition of Albert Wharf and Swedish Wharf, near Wandsworth Bridge, SW6, for a combined price of around £30m for its next scheme.
Henley bought the 3.5-acre waterfront development site in off-market deals from two separate landowners – Swedish Wharf from owner Fuel Oils, and Albert Wharf from private investor brothers.
Developer Ptarmigan previously had an option to acquire the land and secured consent for a £400m mixed-use scheme (pictured) comprising 237 private homes. However, it was unable to find a buyer and the consent has expired.
Henley will submit a new application for a £150m scheme of around 300 homes, retail and a reactivated wharf. It is currently undertaking feasibility studies for both BTR and market sale schemes.
A spokesman for Henley Investments said: “The market has shifted over the last two years and whereas before we were open-minded about creating a property management division… we now think it makes more sense to move further upstream, securing land and working the full planning ourselves.
“We have done this very well at a few sites and have recently added new land for the same purpose. The business therefore sits better in our development group. Like any smart developer, we keep an open mind about what assets to run as build-to-rent or build-to-sell.”
The move comes as institutional backing for BTR heats up, with many reporting intense competition and high pricing for consented schemes that meet blue-chip investor criteria. Last quarter the sector posted the highest level of investment on record, at £1.43bn, according to CBRE.
Henley has 15,000 homes in development and completed in the UK and US. It is masterplanning the 6,250-home Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent in partnership with Homes England. According to its website, it has BTR assets in New York, Las Vegas, Phoenix, California, North Carolina and the UK.
Henley was established in 2006 by chief executive Ian Rickswood. It focused on commercial, residential, healthcare, land infrastructure and alternative real estate. Henley also has a fund management business and a venture capital arm and has deployed more than $2.5bn of balance sheet and investor capital.
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