IMMO, a property technology company that invests in rental housing, is aiming to invest £1bn to buy and retrofit 3,000 homes in the UK by 2025.
The technology-led residential real estate investment platform uses artificial intelligence and its own proprietary technology to identify, acquire, retrofit and manage existing homes.
The company will upgrade homes to an EPC C rating where possible and then rent out them out to residents.
IMMO is targeting the first purchase of its newest UK portfolio in October.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has estimated that the average cost to upgrade a privately rented property to an EPC C rating in the UK is around £7,650.
IMMO’s acquisition plans could save homeowners, landlords and taxpayers a collective £25m.
JLL estimates that addressing all EPC D and E rated homes would save 12m tonnes of CO2 a year, saving renters an estimated £2.6bn in bills and providing investors with a £500bn investment opportunity.
Anna Clare Harper, head of sustainability at IMMO, says: “Britain has some of Europe’s oldest and least efficient housing stock. The scale of the retrofitting challenge is huge, with a potential price tag running into the billions.
“The built environment is one of the worst offenders when it comes to carbon emissions. Without a programme of mass retrofitting, the UK will not be able to meet its net-zero targets.
“Public investment and regulations play an important role in bringing Britain’s housing up to modern energy efficiency standards. The private sector also plays an important role. Institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers are increasingly on the hunt for assets that produce reliable, long-term income streams to match their liabilities in a way that is socially and environmentally responsible.
“As a result, we have a historic opportunity to harness the power of technology and data to match long-term investments with the challenge of greening Britain’s housing stock to provide socially and environmentally responsible homes.”
Earlier this year, IMMO closed a $75m (£62.3m) equity fundraising in what was Europe’s largest ever series B proptech funding round.
The company has also secured $2.5bn in capital commitments from institutional investors to buy, retrofit and then rent out 10,000 homes across Europe.
IMMO plans to secure additional institutional capital to access Europe’s €50tn single-family rental market.
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