Legal & General announces Brighton as next city for Build to Rent homes

Legal & General has announced that it will be creating 200 new Build to Rent (BTR) homes in Brighton as part of its wider approach to address the UK’s housing shortage, having acquired a prime city centre development site.

Subject to planning consent, this will be the city’s first ever BTR development.

Dan Batterton, BTR Fund Manager at LGIM Real Assets, said:  “Brighton is a vibrant city where people want to live and work. This acquisition represents a rare opportunity to acquire land in an unrivalled location and to deliver the first institutional-grade BTR scheme. We look forward to working with the Council to support Brighton’s talented workforce with the homes they deserve.”

Legal & General now has a total housing pipeline of more than 70,000 units, of which just over 1,900 are BTR homes with an expected gross development value across the portfolio of more than £500m.

This is Legal & General’s seventh BTR scheme, with existing sites progressing well in Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Salford, Bath, and Walthamstow. 

Mathieu Elshout, Senior Director Private Real Estate at PGGM, commented: “Our successful venture with Legal & General continues to materialise at pace through a range of BTR-development programmes across the UK. This is in line with our ambition to build long-term partnerships with prominent local real estate players.

“In these partnerships we focus on City’s like Brighton which represent strong economic regions with significant potential for further growth. Brighton has a severe housing shortage and our investment will help address this by creating a highly sustainable and high-quality BTR offer for the City.”

Legal & General has £1bn of firepower to invest in developing new large scale rental development properties which will provide rental income for pension funds to pay their pensioners, and create an economic stimulus for UK urban regeneration areas, delivering new jobs and growth.

James Lidgate, CEO at Legal & General Homes, said: “Brighton is a thriving City with a hugely talented workforce. The UK needs urban centres that are fit for purpose and can support a creative, sustainable community like Brighton.

“Our BTR pipeline is growing at pace and it is exciting to see the impact that our developments are making to our UK cities.”  

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