By Savills Investment Management (“Savills IM”), the international real estate investment manager, has completed the acquisition of two forward-funded single family residential sites in the Midlands, both developed by Urban & Civic, for a total of approximately £50 million. Both were off-market transactions.
These are the first acquisitions in Savills IM’s Build-to-Rent (BTR) portfolio, following the acquisition of Pitmore, the UK Development and BTR specialist, in August 2022, which signalled Savills IM’s plans to grow its UK residential and BTR platform.
The first site at Houlton, Rugby, Warwickshire, totals 149 homes and is part of a broader masterplan to deliver 5,950 new homes alongside four new schools.
Community will be at the heart of the scheme, which will be served by a range of shops and local amenities, all clustered within a series of local centres and a district centre.
There will also be 40 acres of green open space, as well as over 700 trees planted in the first phase of the scheme.
On the ESG front, the development is set to deliver energy efficient, technology-enabled BTR units with the highest possible EPC A rating, delivering energy cost savings to tenants.
Further energy savings will be driven by the installation of solar power units.
The second site at Alconbury Weald in Cambridgeshire comprises 49 residential units as a mix of single-family and flats and is part of a broader scheme set to deliver 6,500 new homes alongside parks, play areas and over 200 acres of woodland and green space.
Alconbury is regarded as an exemplar for new sustainable development and is a Homes England flagship site.
The 49 homes developed will all be EV charging ‘ready’ and include smart home technologies to allow the control and monitoring of energy usage.
Jon Crossfield, Head of Living at Savills IM said:
“We are delighted to have acquired these two sites, both at attractive prices against the backdrop of the single-family forward funding market.
The schemes at Rugby and Alconbury will form a high-quality core of our build-to-rent portfolio, with strong demand fundamentals, providing resilience against market downturns due to the defensive nature of the sector.
The fact that both transactions were sourced off-market further illustrate our team’s in-depth knowledge of the sector, especially with the addition of the Pitmore team, who have brought a wealth of experience and a high-quality client base.”
Savills Investment Management worked with Brotherton to procure development finance from Bank Leumi.
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