Housebuilder Berkeley Group has launched a 10-year plan that will see it invest billions of pounds into building its build-to-rent platform.
The group, which announced plans to establish is own BTR platform in June, identifying around 4,000 homes across 16 sites, said it believed BTR would be central to government achieving its plan to deliver 1.5m new homes.
Chief executive Rob Perrins said: “Berkeley wants to play its full part in addressing this shortfall and helping government meet its ambitions and believes that we are close to the point of inflection when both the operating environment and market conditions are supportive of investment.
“In light of this, we are today announcing a new 10-year strategy – Berkeley 2035 – which takes into account both the volatility that persists in the operating environment and emerging opportunities.”
The new strategy will see the business invest some £7bn over the next 10 years to grow its build-to-rent platform it launched this summer, buy land and return cash to shareholders.
The group said it would be continually reviewing the right allocation of its production to its own BTR platform, seeing this as an opportunity to accelerate delivery and create value for shareholders.
The construction of the initial portfolio properties will absorb some £1.2bn of free cash flow over the next 10 years, said Berkeley, with the option to grow the portfolio more aggressively should this be determined as the best course of action for delivering shareholder value.
Perrins said: “Berkeley 2035 incorporates the necessary resilience to navigate what remains a volatile near-term operating environment, while providing Berkeley with the flexibility to use its entrepreneurial property expertise to grow profitability, maximise the value and potential of our land holdings and BTR platform, and grow net asset value per share over the 10-year period, within a disciplined framework for capital allocation.”
The announcement of the new strategy came as the group reported on trading for the first half of its financial year.
Pre-tax profit across the business fell by 7.7% to £275.1m in the six months ended 31 October, as muted transaction volumes continue to hit the business.
Despite the decline, Perrins said the business was still confident it would hit its full-year pre-tax profit guidance of £525m and at least £450m in 2026 but added that meaningful recovery would require “a sustained improvement in consumer confidence and stability in the wider macroeconomic environment”.
During the period under review, Berkeley delivered 2,280 homes, up from 1,989 in 2023.
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