Britain’s biggest landlord enjoys bumper start to 2...

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10 February 2023

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Britain’s biggest landlord enjoys bumper start to 2023

Grainger, the Newcastle company that is active in Build To Rent and claims to be Britain’s biggest landlord, has enjoyed a bumper start to 2023.

In a statement to shareholders it says it’s seen like-for-like rental income grow 6.1 per cent in the four months ending January, almost double the rate for the equivalent period last year.

Its private rental portfolio enjoyed record occupancy levels of 98.7 per cent with customer enquiries nearing unprecedented levels.

Grainger is investing £300m to deliver 1,640 BTR units in seven English and Welsh cities in 2023, as part of a £1.8 billion pipeline to provide some 7,000 rental properties.

Chief executive Helen Gordon says: “Based on our continuing strong rental growth, underpinned by demand for private rented housing, and our significant progress in investing in and delivering new rental homes, we are confident of continuing our strong operational performance.”

Gordon continues: "Building on last year’s record performance, Grainger has continued to deliver strong performance against all key operational metrics as demand for private rented housing in the UK has continued to grow further, coupled with low levels of supply.

“… Whilst keeping a very close eye on overall customer affordability levels, like-for-like rental growth has accelerated to 6.1 per cent from 5.5 per cent in H2 2022, closely correlated to wage inflation, compared to 3.2 per cent for the same period last year.

"Our programme of sales activity has proved resilient to date despite the uncertain outlook in the housing sales market, due to a lower reliance on mortgage purchases and first-time buyers. Sales of vacant homes from our regulated tenancy portfolio, as well as asset recycling across our private rental sector, regulated tenancy and development portfolios, have performed well, generating £48.1m of total proceeds, ahead of the same period last year (£21.1m).

“Sales prices achieved from vacant sales were on average 1.2 per cent below September vacant possession values, outperforming the market and reflecting the more resilient nature of these sales due to our typical buyer profile."

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