Lloyds to buy 800 homes from developers by the end of next year

Lloyds Banking Group has set up a Build to Rent business, Citra Living, with plans for it to own and let around 800 properties before the end of next year.

The high street bank said the business would focus on buying up homes in new build developments, with the first being 45 apartments in the Peterborough Investment Partnership’s Fletton Quays scheme in the city.

Fletton Quays PIP Lloyds Bank

Lloyds has bought 45 apartments at the Fletton Quays scheme in Peterborough

Lloyds said it will acquire 400 homes before the end of the year, with the aim of doubling this investment next year.

It added that its ambition was to work in “strategic partnerships” with “leading housebuilders” to support the building of additional homes by buying up the rental element of wider schemes, but did not say if it already had particular developers signed up.

It said it was looking to buy “modern, good quality homes” that were “within easy reach of local transport, amenities and leisure facilities”, and will partner with a specialised residential service company to manage the properties.

The venture by Lloyds is the latest example of institutional investment in the Build to Rent sector, which has grown from a standing start a decade ago to provide more than 10,000 new build homes a year in the last two years, according to the British Property Federation.

Lloyds has not given a figure for the ultimate anticipated size of the Citra Living business.

Topics