Greykite and Gatehouse team up for £750m single-family housing jv

Greykite European Real Estate Fund and Gatehouse Investment Management have joined forces to launch a £750m purpose-built single-family rental home jv. The new venture will be seeded with 11 sites, in the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East, which have been bought from housebuilder Persimmon Homes. The portfolio will be asset managed by minority partner Gatehouse Investment Management, with Ascend appointed as property manager. The jv said it would seek to partner with a range of housebuilders, including Persimmon, to deploy around £750m in assembling a scaled portfolio of 2,500 newly built, high-quality and sustainable single-family rental homes. It will focus on critically undersupplied strategic regional locations which are benefiting from a combination of supportive economic, demographic and employment drivers.  It has already secured exclusivity on a number of additional sites, and is targeting purchase commitments of more than £200m by the end of 2024. Michael Abel, founder and chief executive of Greykite, said: “The UK SFR sector benefits from a number of compelling demand fundamentals and continues to be characterised by a chronic undersupply of purpose-built stock. In particular, we have identified several UK cities with attractive rental growth prospects, as a result of their supportive demographics, forecast GDP growth and good affordability metrics.” Paul Stockwell, group managing director of Gatehouse Investment Management, added: “This launch comes at an exciting time in the SFR sector as it becomes an increasingly vital pillar of the UK’s housing mix. Greykite’s approach will complement our platform’s capabilities as we seek to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the asset class.  “With the first homes already acquired from Persimmon – a housebuilder we have worked with previously that understands the requirements of SFR – the new portfolio is on track to scale swiftly, leveraging the team’s sector understanding and delivery partner relationships to secure the best sites nationwide.” Photo courtesy of FTI Consulting