A housing association has entered the build-to-rent sector, saying it will spend £65m on developing small private rental homes in west London.
Catalyst Housing, which is social landlord to 21,000 properties, will use a non-charitable subsidiary to build and then manage 800 one- and two-bedroom homes close to Crossrail.
Tom Titherington, director of business development at Catalyst, said its expansion into the private rental market will provide its customers with the “broadest range of housing options”.
He said: “Rising property prices put owner-occupying out of the reach of increasing numbers of Londoners.
“The reduction in government subsidy for social housing has led Catalyst, along with other registered providers, to explore alternative forms of housing provision which do not need subsidy.”
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Comments
Taking the conversation back to the one we were having last week. Read this story and wonder why they are doing it. The Housing Associations are actively going after the very tenants that I am suggesting Letting Agents should pursue on behalf of their Landlords.
Since last week I have found, on behalf of a client, a brownfield development site that will provide 6 ‘Assisted’ tenancy flats. With purchase, fees and build costs about the same as 2.5 local starter homes (yielding under 4% in one other parts of town) the development will yield between 8 and 10% bringing in well over twice the month rent of the private tenancies.
There is good reason for them using a non charitable subsidiary for these projects, they will be profitable.