Leaders Romans Group (LRG) has been instructed by Legal & General’s Suburban Build-to-Rent team to jointly manage and maintain over 100 BTR units near Wokingham, Berkshire.
Buckler’s Park, which is being built by Cala Homes, is a new community of contemporary-styled homes in the Berkshire countryside adjoining LRG’s headquarters. The site offers a sustainable new mixed-used community similar to the BTR suburban community defined in LRG’s recent BTR white paper – BTR suburban communities: the next stage in the evolution of Build-to-Rent.
Andy Jones, group director of corporate & BTR at LRG, said: “We are very pleased to have been appointed to manage this significant number of BTR units. Investment in BTR reached record levels during 2022 and it is no coincidence that this has occurred as BTR expands beyond traditional city apartment units into communities such as this. Despite the threat of a recession, the BTR market is set to grow substantially as the cost of living crisis and rising mortgage rates potentially deter would-be first-time buyers from stepping onto the property ladder.”
“BTR suburban communities have evolved to meet growing demand. In contrast to traditional BTR, this new iteration focuses on suburban rather than city locations, families rather than young professionals, houses rather than apartments, and typically offers shared outdoor spaces in place of indoor co-living. The BTR suburban communities model translates the hugely popular values of traditional BTR into a new context.”
Sue Winterbourne, corporate business success director at LRG, commented: “We are delighted to be working on this new community, which represents the BTR suburban community principles coming into fruition. I especially look forward to working with L&G SBTR which has the same high standards for ESG as Leaders Romans Group – as both organisations plan to operate at net zero by 2030.”
Legal & General launched its Build-to-Rent Fund in 2017 and now has over 5,500 homes in operation or development across the UK’s major towns and cities. The SBTR sector, however, has lacked the same concentration of investment, with less than 1% of the market having benefitted from patient capital compared to around 6% for the urban sector.
