Good morning.
Suburban build-to-rent has swelled to 13,884 homes following a recent surge in investor backing. The ‘burbs now account for 7% of the sector.
In fact, plans for 38,533 homes across 98 BTR developments were submitted across the UK in the year to March – a 53% rise on the previous year.
Meanwhile, Hermes’ Hestia platform has plans to spend £1bn on BTR in the next three years. And that is just the beginning, says fund director Will Gibby.
And if that’s not enough BTR for you, there is more in this week’s EG Like Sunday Morning podcast, and even more over the coming week. You lucky people!
And build-to-retire is also booming, with Fore Partnership committing £300m to developing 1,000 sustainable, extra-care later living homes across the UK with operator Amicala, starting with an £80m site in Bristol.
BlackRock, meanwhile, is investing £100m into UK retirement housing through a joint venture with Audley Group(£).
Barratt Homes(£), however, has become the first big housebuilder to buy back flats from leaseholders caught by the cladding crisis.
And The Guardian says that the only ones to benefit rom the government’s planning relaxation will be unscrupulous landowners.
Shares in St Modwen ended the week at 550p, after trading well above Blackstone’s recommended offer of 542p. A rival bid has yet to emerge, but the bid is still too low, says The Times (£).
Schroders, John Laing’s second largest shareholder, has thrown its weight behind KKR’s £2bn buyout bid(£).
And TGI Fridays(£) has plans to float on the London stock market.
Residents have responded with fury to plans to sell what they thought was a communal garden square(£) in west London for £5m.
A shortage of materials(£) is holding up a building boom, as the cost of some supplies soars by 20%.
But there could be some extra concrete in the mix, as the Environment Agency plans to axe concrete flood defences(£) in favour of nature-based solutions.
The Sunday Times has published its annual Rich List(£), revealing a record number of billionaires (171) and a record total wealth ($597.3bn). The Reuben brothers remain at the #2 spot, just pipped to the top by Leonard Blavatnik.
Meanwhile, calls for a wealth tax(£) are growing, even among the wealthy.
And finally, the battle for the future of the workplace continues. The Guardian turns its spotlight on 22 Bishopsgate, the new glittering jewel of the City and Britain’s second tallest tower. Developer Stuart Lipton says it is everything a modern office building should be, which apparently this means it is actually a vertical village with street food stalls, a signature scent and an open-door policy to all and sundry. The paper is impressed, but concludes: “It’s hard to be a container ship and a village at the same time”. And then there are those convinced that the office is a thing of the past, and now for something completely different. Hybrid working could see us setting up our desks in some very unusual places, says The FT (£), from the sides of swimming pools to actual villages, as opposed to vertical ones. Monty Python, it seems, was factually accurate all along.
