Insurance giant’s subsidiary bought site in Coventry just last month

L&G’s suburban build-to-rent business has recorded its first revenue as it continues to acquire sites.

In its annual report for the year ended 31 December 2023, the business reported turnover of £38m from rental income across three corporate entities.

The majority of this income came from Legal & General Suburban BTR (Development) Limited (£26m) and Legal & General SBTR (Crowthorne 1) Limited (£12m), with an additional sum of less than £0.5m coming from Legal & General Suburban BTR (Development 2) Limited

LGSBTR (Development) made a small pre-tax loss of £51,000, while LGSBTR (Crowthorne 1) and LGSBTR (Development 2) both recorded pre-tax profit, of £342,000 and £233,000, respectively. 

L&G Suburban BTR Gt Haddon Lodge Way

L&G’s suburban build to rent scheme bought from Countryside at Great Haddon

L&G Suburban BTR (LGSBTR) was launched in November 2020 by the investment arm of the insurance giant, with an ambition to deliver 1,000 homes a year by 2024.

The annual report also revealed that during the year, LGSBTR (Development) had acquired three sites for the delivery of rental homes across the UK and incorporated 13 subsidiaries to enable construction of the properties.

Subsequent to the balance sheet date, that company acquired a site in Ashdown in January 2024 with a development value of £31m and a site in Coventry last month with a value of £44m.

In April 2023, LGSBTR announced it had secured a £150m credit facility from a consortium of lenders, including Barclays, HSBC and NatWest. 

The business was established to take advantage of the recent growth in the market for purpose built traditional housing for rental.

The vast majority of built-to-rent homes had previously been produced in town and city centre flats in blocks aimed at young professionals.

Other build-to-rent investors such as Moda and Apache have also announced investments in the sector and the British Property Federation has said single-family housing now makes up a growing part of the build to rent development pipeline.