Suburban build to rent business set up to develop 2,500 homes

Gatehouse Bank has announced the launch of a £500 million joint venture with US investment firm TPG Real Estate Partners (TREP) to build 2,500 rental homes.

The UK challenger bank, which specialises in build to rent, said the venture is set to “become one of the UK’s largest providers of purpose built single-family rental homes.”

The venture has secured an initial portfolio of four sites, acquired in partnership with Countryside. These sites consist of 321 family homes in the Midlands, Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

It is seeking to build “relationships with other housebuilders” and forward-fund developments to expand the portfolio to 2,500 homes.

Gatehouse, which is Shariah-compliant, was formed in 2008 and has been investing in the United Kingdom private rented sector since 2014. In January it sold a portfolio of 918 homes across 15 sites in the north west of England, to Goldman Sachs for £150m.

Paul Stockwell, chief commercial officer at Gatehouse, said: “This joint venture will see significant capital being deployed to build and develop the next generation of build-to-rent housing, concentrating on high quality family homes in suburban locations.”

TREP is the real estate equity investment platform of global alternative asset firm TPG.

James Piper, Partner at TREP said: “With this initiative, we aim to be a valued partner not only to homebuilders but also the communities and families that will call these properties home.”