Developer HUB is gearing up to double its £1bn residential pipeline on the back of a bullish outlook for build-to-rent growth after Covid-19.
It is planning to grow its pipeline to £2bn within three years, bolstered by new acquisitions, finance and partnerships.
As part of this strategy it has hired two acquisition managers tasked with finding new land opportunities across the UK, in an expansion from London and the South East to other major UK cities.
Former Berkeley land buyer Tom Starkey has joined the company alongside Amar Thakrar, who previously worked at Pocket and Aitch Group.
HUB is in talks with potential institutional funding partners to build the business, and has cited particular interest from the US and Europe. It expects to almost double its 20-strong team to support its rapid expansion.
Chief executive and co-founder Robert Sloss (pictured, right) told EG: “We were one of the first to do any BTR. We’ve gone on to transact with a whole series of the forward-funding institutions, and we are in one of the few really exciting sectors of UK real estate right now.”
HUB launched in 2012 to create a mid-market product, with backing from high-net-worth private investors as well as firms including Bridges Fund Management.
It inked its first BTR deal with M&G at the £43.5m Rehearsal Rooms in Acton in 2014 and recently completed its seventh transaction, with Realstar and QuadReal at the £100m Wembley Link.
HUB expects to complete an eighth BTR deal this year, with two more on the horizon next year. It currently has 4,100 homes completed and in development, of which 70% are BTR. By the end of the year it will have 1,000 homes on site, of which 80% will be BTR.
Sloss anticipates that BTR will “grow and grow and increase in importance in the UK and within 10 years will be one of the major real estate sectors by volume”. And as BTR matures and diversifies, so too will HUB.
The developer is planning 2,000 homes in Birmingham’s Digbeth, at its first venture out of London and the commuter belt. The scheme will comprise a mix of BTR, for sale, student and co-living, and will be decided at the council’s planning committee this month.
It is also working on the £250m Maidenhead town centre mixed-use regeneration with Smedvig and an £80m hybrid women’s housing and co-living scheme in Wood Lane. The latter is referable to the mayor of London, and may see HUB secure the first co-living approval from City Hall, with a decision anticipated early next year.
As HUB expands it is adding mixed-use strategies, buoyed by its commercial sister company SquareStone Growth, and new cities to the portfolio.
Sloss said: “We will remain predominantly a Greater London developer, but we are also looking actively at what we call lifestyle cities.” He pointed to Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham and Edinburgh as target cities with strong fundamentals and demand for BTR.
HUB managing director Damien Sharkey (pictured above with Sloss) added: “We are taking the… approach that we have developed in Greater London over the last seven to eight years and taking it to these regional cities.”
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