L&G to fund £100m Brum build to rent project

Insurance giant L&G and Dutch pension fund PGGM have agreed a £100m funding package for a major build to rent scheme in Birmingham.

The development funding deal will allow development of the 395-home scheme at Hockley Mills in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter to go ahead.

L&G said the Access Development Partnership – a joint venture between it and PGGM – had agreed to fund the scheme, being built out by Sir Robert McAlpine. The scheme is L&G’s second build to rent investment in Birmingham and 16th overall, taking the firm’s investment in the sector to £2.1bn.

L&G’s Build to Rent (BTR) fund now owns 5,300 apartments across the UK.

The firm said the Hockley Mills scheme will deliver a selection of one, two and three bedroom apartments, alongside a new entrance to the Jewellery Quarter train station, 116 car parking spaces and 28,000 sq ft of flexible commercial space for retail, leisure and offices.

Dan Batterton, senior fund manager for BTR at LGIM Real Assets, said the build to rent sector had really come into its own in the last few years, and that the Hockley Mills scheme would deliver “high-quality, professionally-managed rental accommodation”.

He said: “Build to rent has cemented its position in the UK as an asset class and successfully evolved away from the private rented sector. Showing its resilience and relative counter cyclical nature of the residential sector, BTR has remained largely unaffected throughout the coronavirus pandemic, as occupancy, rent collection and demand has remained high.”