Hub has set its sights on adding £500m GDV of sites to its pipeline this year, across its core build-to-rent offer and new low-carbon urban living arm HubCap.
The residential developer is seeking to build out its BTR pipeline with land acquisitions totalling £300m GDV. That is in addition to £200m GDV of projects for HubCap, which focuses on co-living and aparthotel schemes.
Hub has an existing £1.8bn GDV pipeline, with three projects worth £300m in construction so far this year. Its funding partners include Bridges Fund Management and Realstar.
Robert Sloss, group chief executive and co-founder of Hub, told EG that the business is looking to expand in London and “satellite areas” such as Maidenhead and Reading, as well as in Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Brighton.
The values of those sites would ideally exceed more than £600 per sq ft in London and more than £350 per sq ft in the regions. Each site would be capable of providing more than 100 homes.
For its HubCap venture acquisitions, the developer is looking for more than 20,000 sq ft of vacant or partially let commercial buildings valued up to £40m.
The developer is seeking to acquire sites with or without planning permission and is open to joint ventures or other types of creative deal structures.
HubCap is looking for sites in London transport zones 1-3, Edinburgh, Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, York, Oxford and Cambridge.
Sloss highlighted an increase in lower-cost land-buying opportunities now that the cost of leverage in the wider market has “gone through the roof”.
“We are strong believers in UK BTR,” said Sloss. “We think it is still at a very early stage of development – there is a very long way to go. Therefore, we continue to seek to increase our BTR footprint both in London and our regional target cities.
“Last year was… a year of changing dynamics in the market. We see this year as a chance to grow the footprint significantly.”
Sloss added that while the BTR investment market is moving “very slowly”, he expects it to “start moving again” during the second half of the year.
“It is going to be tough for the first six months of 2023, and I think a lot of people are waiting to see where UK base rates flatten out,” said Sloss. “At the moment a lot of the institutions are waiting because of the turbulence, but my strong belief is that one by one they will come back to this market.”
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