Grainger on growth: UK expansion, city clusters and modular homes
Grainger has boosted its private rented sector portfolio by £1bn in the past year and will look to new markets, city clusters and even modular delivery for continued growth next year.
The residential giant is now weighted in favour of PRS, with a portfolio valuation of £1.526bn, up from £591m a year ago.
“That’s a dramatic change. We are now far more of an investment business and less reliant on sales trading, which is a good place to be,” said Grainger chief executive Helen Gordon.
Grainger has boosted its private rented sector portfolio by £1bn in the past year and will look to new markets, city clusters and even modular delivery for continued growth next year.
The residential giant is now weighted in favour of PRS, with a portfolio valuation of £1.526bn, up from £591m a year ago.
“That’s a dramatic change. We are now far more of an investment business and less reliant on sales trading, which is a good place to be,” said Grainger chief executive Helen Gordon.
“We won’t replicate that every year, we are going to deliver another 1,000 new homes next year.”
This includes at Gore Street in Manchester, Pontoon Dock and Apex House in London and Silbury Boulevard in Milton Keynes, building on the current operational portfolio of 5,597 homes.
Growth will be fuelled by the Transport for London jv Connected Living London, with 3,000 homes to be delivered by 2025.
Gordon said: “We have an ambition within the jv to submit planning applications for as many of the schemes as we can early next year.”
She said the first scheme would likely be the 450-home scheme in Southall Sidings, with the other six sites comprising a further 2,530 homes to follow. The jv has a goal to be on site by 2021 with development complete by 2025.
Modular construction
The push for delivery may see Grainger make its first foray into modular construction.
“I know that TfL is quite keen on [modular] because of speed and we will assess whichever route we think is best to deliver the buildings. It is certainly an aspiration to explore it,” said Gordon.
Outside of the TfL tie-up, Grainger has a further 6,104 units secured, in planning or legals.
It has a goal to be in 18 core cities and is also working to create clusters of schemes in these cities.
“What is happening now is that we are still trying to access some of our key cities, but we are also doubling up and that gives us operational efficiency as well,” said Gordon.
In the past year Grainger has added sites in cities where it already has a presence, including Bristol, Sheffield and Milton Keynes.
But having checked off just 10 of the 18 cities on its hitlist, next year could see it spread further afield.
Political barriers
Within this, Grainger has been working to expand into Belfast, but has come up against political barriers.
“Obviously Belfast could be a really exciting location as we emerge with some certainty on where we are going with Brexit,” said Gordon.
As the political parties released their manifestos, while first-time buyer support has been high on the agenda, Gordon stressed that renters have not been forgotten, further fuelling growth for Grainger.
She highlighted across-the-board support for tackling so-called “dodgy landlords”, Conservative policies on planning, and the Liberal Democrats’ Help to Rent initiative providing under-30s with deposits to get on the rental ladder.
Labour’s threats of rent controls do not concern Grainger as she said plans are similar to Grainger’s inflation-linked rent reviews, which are built into leases.
Gordon said: “When we assess the political parties, all of them have things that actually work for us.”
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