Legal & General, acting on behalf of its Built to Rent (BTR) and Access Development Partnership (a joint venture between Legal & General Capital and PGGM), has agreed the funding of a €110.7m (£100m) development site at Hockley Mills, within the Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area in Birmingham town centre.
Located centrally in one of the most sought after residential districts in the West Midlands and adjacent to both rail and tram links, the Hockley Mills site is on the periphery of the Jewellery Quarter providing a strong micro-location for BTR accommodation. The scheme will deliver 395 apartments; one, two and three-bedroom, alongside a new entrance to the Jewellery Quarter train station, 116 car parking spaces and 28,000ft² of flexible commercial space for retail, leisure and offices.
Dan Batterton, Senior Fund Manager, BTR, LGIM Real Assets said: “In the space of the last few years, the BTR sector has really come into its own. It 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. The Hockley Mills development further strengthens our existing portfolio, bringing our total number of schemes to 16 in eleven cities providing more than 5,300 apartments. The scheme will deliver high-quality, professionally-managed rental accommodation that can help to address the supply-demand imbalance in Birmingham.”
