Two former managing directors of investment at Greystar have teamed up to form a build-to-rent platform with ambitions to develop 1,000 homes in five years.
Harry Downes has partnered with Jamie Spencer to build a platform aiming to provide mid-market, low-rise, low-amenity BTR homes in the South East.
Downes joined Greystar in 2022 from Fizzy Living, where he specialised in such product. Spencer joined Greystar in four years prior from Anthony Green & Spencer, having also worked at JP Morgan.
The two worked together at Greystar for three years, before Downes stepped down from the company in December last year, and Spencer in April 2025.
The duo is now looking to raise £100m-150m for the new venture. Spencer and Downes said they are in talks with several investors and are aiming to work with a single backer.
Spencer said: “The opportunity is huge because historically, if you look at the last 10-12 years, a large majority of the built developments that have come forward have been high-rise, highly amenitised and in urban city centers. There’s been a big shift to single-family housing, which is branching out into suburban housing. But there aren’t a lot of people focusing on kind of low, mid-market apartments.”
The pair told Estates Gazette that they will target commuter locations in the South East with transport links, schools and amenities nearby with 100-200 apartments in a development.
Spencer added: “There could be some single family incorporated within our developments as well, but we really want to bring forward an apartment-led strategy. We’re focusing on a mid-market product. It’s going to be amenity-light, operationally light, and we are targeting a sweet spot of 100 to 200 apartments.”
The firm will target forward-fund opportunities, and is open to value-add plays as well. The duo is looking to acquire consented sites
Downes said: “We are aiming for the average 30-year-olds, it’s young people who are looking for something that they can afford, that’s a good place to live in, well-connected, and a fun place to live.”
Speaking on why the duo are looking at low-rise product, Downes added: “It just takes out a whole load of complications [due to the Building Safety Act] that you just don’t need. And with the product in city centre locations, rents are so expensive as it’s so expensive to build, and it takes longer. That goes straight into the rents. Whereas if we go out further, if we build faster, we’d still be doing exactly the same stuff with low-rises.”
According to a recent report by Lambert Smith Hampton, the number of operational BTR homes has more than doubled in the past four years, surpassing 130,000 in the first quarter of 2025. The pipeline remains robust, with over 56,500 homes currently under construction and a further 126,000 in planning.
The report said that of the 4.65m households renting privately in England, 19% are private rented sector homes. However, the sectors growth has stalled since 2016/17, with a net loss of 309,000 rental homes as smaller landlords exit the market due to tax and regulatory pressures.
BTR has helped fill the gap, with over 14,000 BTR homes advertised to rent in 2024, up threefold from 2016. But they still represent only 2% of all listings.
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