Avanton has unveiled plans to invest £500m in strategic land acquisitions over the next three years, as it expands into London’s lucrative build-to-rent sector
Avanton intends to expand into the build-to-rent (BTR) sector in the capital where there remains a significant lack of high quality, purpose-built, rental stock in relation to demand.
The new land fund will target the acquisition of sites across Inner London in locations such as Islington, Southwark, Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Hammersmith, Lambeth, Camden and Brent with a view to delivering up to 5,000 build-to-rent units between 2021 and 2023.
Avanton will focus on acquiring sites with land values of £20m to £100m, providing for between 300 to 1,000 units per build-to-rent development.
Working both alone as well as through joint venture partnerships, Avanton will focus its future acquisitions on either consented sites, sites without planning permission or those with existing commercial consents offering the potential for a change of use to residential.
‘Solution to London’s housing crisis’
Omer Weinberger, CEO of Avanton, said: “The only viable solution to London’s housing crisis and the shortage of supply of new homes in the capital is delivering multiple tenure schemes and expanding BTR, intermediate and social housing provision.
“This is why Avanton is currently undergoing a three-year expansion into the build-to-rent and mixed-tenure sectors. To implement this we have set aside £500m and are seeking attractive land opportunities to grow our BTR development pipeline yet further.”
David Ronson, sales & marketing director of Avanton, added: “We are seeking to expand our build-to-rent, mixed tenure and private sale portfolios because despite the obvious challenges the property market has been extremely resilient and recovered rapidly last year after the lockdown.
“This year the market sentiment has been cautiously upbeat as the UK has taken a global lead in the vaccine rollout and we see great opportunity at this moment in the property cycle.”
