Urban&Civic has signed a three-year framework agreement to build new homes for rent across its portfolio of large-scale strategic sites on behalf of the Real Estate business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Goldman Sachs will partner with Pitmore, who will oversee the development and management of the houses, which will predominantly be built for single families. The framework gives Goldman Sachs the ability to acquire new homes for market rent in key strategic locations and is expected to expand its portfolio by an initial 700 properties.
Urban&Civic, which has over 37,000 consented and submitted homes across 8 sites with a further 6 sites in the planning pipeline, will identify and allocate parcels of land suitable for market rent homes within its projects, alongside the existing homes for sale and affordable homes.
The agreement will further accelerate the delivery of new homes at Urban&Civic’s strategic sites as well as offering a more diverse mix of tenures, with private market rent to be introduced alongside market sale and affordable housing. The first project to be delivered under the framework will provide 149 homes at Urban&Civic’s award winning development at Houlton, Rugby which is a joint venture with Aviva Investors. The framework with Urban&Civic expands Goldman Sachs’ presence in the UK single-family rental market, building off the recent acquisition of 918 units across 15 sites from Gatehouse Bank.
Chris Semones, Managing Director in the Real Estate business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said: “We believe that high quality, new rental homes are an undersupplied segment in the UK housing market. We look forward to partnering with Urban&Civic and Pitmore to deliver homes that provide families with well-priced, well-managed and high-quality living spaces.”
Nigel Hugill, Chief Executive at Urban&Civic, said: “We are very pleased to have agreed a new strategic partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management to bring more homes for rent. We see single family housing for market rent as an important part of the mix of tenures that will give people choice and access to our developments. This strategic partnership will enable us to accelerate housing delivery and further increase absorption rates.”
