US multi-family giant Greystar is in advanced talks to buy what will be the world’s largest modular tower as part of its UK build-to-rent expansion.
It is close to agreeing a deal to forward fund Tide Construction’s 44-storey, 546-flat tower on George Street, close to East Croydon station in south London, on the former Essex House site.
The deal is the most high-profile development to date using the much-vaunted modular construction methods, and will have an end value of well over £150m.
The site does not yet have planning, although an application was submitted in August. However, the faster build rates allowed by modular construction mean that Greystar will have access to a fully functioning and income-producing tower within 22 months once construction starts.
Tide built Apex House in Wembley – a 28-storey, 558-room student block and the tallest modular tower in Europe – in less than a year.
For a residential operator like Greystar, that wants income from developments as soon as possible, the timescale is critical. Furthermore, for investors looking to forward plan construction timescales and market entries, the standardised approach of modular construction can be a crucial factor.
Tide Construction is a developer and contractor, and has delivered projects across London, most often in the student sector using its off-site manufacturing system, Vision Modular Systems. It has worked with Greystar before – delivering its 636-bed student scheme in Lewisham, and is the construction partner for its 306-bed scheme in Acton.
Vision Modular Systems is based in Bedford with 180 staff in a 180,000 sq ft facility – it says its fast-track construction method has proven benefits in quality, safety and sustainability as the modules arrive on site fully fitted.
Modular construction, or prefab, has received a lot of attention from policy makers and developers in recent years, and the number of schemes built in this way has risen dramatically as methods have advanced.
A long way from the pre-fabricated towers of the 1970s, it is seen as a reliable, safe and efficient way of pre-building homes in factory conditions before slotting them together on site: thus bypassing many of the labour issues brought about by the construction crisis.
Berkeley has developed modular homes at Kidbrooke Village in south east London, while Legal & General has set up its own factory, and L&Q has created its own company, Quadrant Construction Services. Nationally, the government has allocated part of its £3bn home building fund to schemes using modular construction through the Homes and Communities Agency.
Tide says its modular building programme often results in a 60% time saving and significantly less disruption on-site, with up to 80% fewer vehicle movements.
The part-38, part-44 storey tower will include 109 “affordable homes”, including 20% at London living rent. The site has an existing permission for 305 homes and is next to Croydon Council and Brick by Brick’s redevelopment of Fairfield Halls.
This will be Greystar’s fourth build-to-rent scheme. It is developing 400 flats in a reconfigured residential tower in Millharbour, E14 alongside 1,965 rental homes on the former site of the GlaxoSmithKline headquarters site in Greenford, west London. Most recently, it paid £101m for part of the former post office sorting site in Vauxhall, SW8 where it plans to build 894 homes.
Greystar and Tide Construction declined to comment.
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