Slovakia’s JTRE has completed its acquisition of family business Sons & Co and launched JTRE London.
The takeover, reported by EG last year, will see the developer ramp up its acquisitions in the capital, following on from a four-year partnership.
JTRE London has a target to spend at least £350m on zone one sites in three years, focusing on office and residential consented sites valued at £50m-£100m.
“Working as a developer in London, you need so much money to play the game at any real proper level. We got fed up of going around and kissing frogs all the time,” said JTRE London development director Alex Stocker and co-founder of Sons & Co.
“JTRE is so well-capitalised, it has deep pockets and it wants to become one of the biggest investor-developers in London. We wanted to do the same thing – we had the experience, the expertise and the local knowledge.”
Sons & Co has previously stuck to consented sites in the capital, but JTRE London will now expand to include unconsented land to bring through the planning process.
“There are few things that we are looking at that are ‘slow burners’, whereby they have existing income for a couple of years to allow up to work the planning up, before we either decide to sell on or develop out,” adds Stocker.
The developer will target prime resi sales values of £1,600-£2,500 per sq ft in schemes of up to 200 homes. It anticipates that London revenue will account for 50% of income in the next 10 years.
In the wake of the pandemic, JTRE London will be on the hunt for bargains and forced selling.
“Our intention is to buy up as much as we can do in the next six months to a year,” says Stocker. “I think we will start seeing more things come to the market and a lot of people might be scared by that, they probably won’t pile in until much later on. We see the next six to 12 months as a rich-pickings environment for us.”
The goal for now will be to “buy, build and sell”, he explains. Down the road, the investor may also seek to hold assets for the longer-term.
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