Shepherd Direct has confirmed a major nationwide deal to build thousands of new private rental homes across the UK.
Shepherd Direct is the owner of mortgage firms moneyQuest and If I Were You, and estate agencies Century 21 UK and Direct Lettings.
The deal will eventually create Britain's biggest private rental sector landlord with at least 6,600 properties in a £700m joint venture.
Residential and urban regeneration specialist Sigma is also involved with the deal financed with equity from Gatehouse Bank plc.
The deal officially completed this week and the first construction phase of the building project began with the building of 927 new rental homes at a development cost of approximately £100m.
Shepherd Direct says the 927 new homes will comprise a mix of high quality family homes and apartments. They will be constructed across 14 sites in phase one including 10 in Greater Manchester and four in the Liverpool area. Further phases of new homes are planned across the UK which will boost the number of homes to thousands.
Shepherd Direct businesses, Century 21 UK and Direct Lettings, will deliver the project as Sigma's partner with Century 21 agency offices handling tenant selection across the UK for all properties, with ongoing portfolio management undertaken by the group's Direct Lettings business.
Rob Clifford, group commercial director of Shepherd Direct, said: This is a particularly exciting announcement for our group and is the culmination of many months of hard work by our PRS managing director, Paul Staley, and his team.
Shepherd Direct Group is absolutely delighted to be a key component in this proposition with our important role in selecting tenants and managing the portfolio for years to come. We have worked very closely with the team at Sigma in order to get to this stage and there will clearly be many benefits, particularly for our hundreds of new tenants who will have the benefit of this fantastic new-build product.
As our Century 21 UK and Direct Lettings businesses are delivering the project exclusively this provides a great boost to our franchisees and also our central teams in Nottingham. The further good news is that this is just the start of the first phase; our anticipation is that this will result in thousands of private rental sector homes being built, with the potential for further projects across the UK. This truly is a landmark moment for this project and Shepherd Direct will be playing a full part in bringing it to fruition.
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