Grainger off to a flying start with 8% rental growth

Grainger has hailed a strong start to the year with rental growth reaching 8.3%. The UK’s largest listed residential landlord said total like-for-like rental growth had risen from 6.1% in January 2023 to 8.3%. PRS rental growth was up to 8.4%. Chief executive Helen Gordon said: “Our forward-looking key performance indicators show continued high levels of rental demand over the coming months, supporting occupancy.” Sales from the company’s legacy portfolio were also strong, at an average of 2.6% above valuation. The sales have been mostly drawn from the unwinding of Grainger’s regulated tenancy portfolio, which currently accounts for 23% of the business. However, as that portfolio reduces in size, Grainger said it “would naturally expect to see volumes of sales reduce”. Last year, the portfolio reduced by around 14% to £760m at September 2023 valuations, while the PRS portfolio grew to £2.5bn. Since its year-end results in November, Grainger has completed 307 homes at Copper Works in Cardiff and continued with the phased delivery of homes at Weavers Yard in Newbury. In the next month it expects to launch two build-to-rent schemes in Birmingham and Bristol totalling 606 homes. Grainger currently has a £3.3bn operational portfolio of 10,200 homes and a £1.6bn pipeline of a further 5,634 BTR homes.