Canary Wharf Group has added a further 2,000 build-to-rent flats to its pipeline and aims to bring in outside investment to fuel expansion.
A cluster of new skyscrapers previously destined for private sale will now be developed as BTR under the company’s specialist platform Vertus.
In a bid to diversify its portfolio, the group will offer mid-market rental homes at Wood Wharf, E14, with further luxury rental to the central business district and co-living at a later stage.
CWG has lodged detailed plans for two new schemes comprising 1,342 homes on the waterfront at Wood Wharf following consultation on a BTR skyscraper at Park Place, providing an additional 624 flats.
Alastair Mullens, managing director at CWG’s rental platform Vertus, told EG: “The most important thing for us is that it diversifies our portfolio and our estate into something that offers commercial, retail and now residential.
“We clearly sit in the upper quartile of the market with our current assets. This is about using the learning from the first buildings to be able to target a slightly more mid-market product.”
On the waterfront, at development plots J1, J2 and J3, it will develop 790 BTR private-market flats. The residential offering will span 708,340 sq ft, providing a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom flats, with accompanying ancillary and retail. Two towers of 34 and 49 storeys will be linked by a two-storey podium providing a main entrance on Charter Street.
In a second scheme (plots E3/E4) on the adjacent site to the west, CWG is proposing a further 552 BTR flats in a 53-storey skyscraper neighbouring existing residential schemes.
CWG has completed 1,137 BTR flats across three schemes, 10 George Street and 8 Water Street at Wood Wharf, following by the 58-storey Newfoundland near Westferry Circus and the business district. For each of these, the developer financed the build, bringing on debt alongside its own equity and is currently working to lease up and stabilise. However, in a shift of strategy, it is exploring bringing on a funding partner for the future developments.
“When I arrived, there were not any hard plans for future build-to-rent, we were waiting to see the success of the initial assets before making a decision on the future of residential buildings,” Mullens said.
The first two buildings are around 50% leased, with the latest at Newfoundland already at 20% after opening in May. The BTR also gives the group greater control over the estate. “We want to be able to maintain the estate ourselves, much like some of our offices, to be able to create the value and the environment we want,” Mullens added.
While Wood Wharf had always been intended for residential, with 3,600 homes across the 23-acre parcel, the new plans are a shift away from the previous for-sale product. The neighbourhood already has two private-market buildings, Ten Park Drive and One Park Drive, with 813 flats across the two and a further 72 flats consented at G7 on the other side of Charter Street.
The outline plans for Wood Wharf also contain sui generis permission for around 300 co-living bedrooms, which Mullens said could come forward in the next three to four years.
“What we are trying to achieve is such that we can accommodate customers through the whole rental lifecycle when they move to London and choose to live in co-living-style apartments, and then they upgrade into our future mid-market apartments and then progress through their careers and are able to move into the more premium product,” added Mullens.
Across the wider estate this means residential and BTR from the West to the East along the South Quay, with a further 1.6m sq ft also earmarked at North Quay next to Canary Wharf Crossrail Station.
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