Quintain mulls European expansion and modular housing push

Quintain is exploring expanding its lifestyle focused rental brand Tipi into continental Europe. The Lone Star-owned developer has largely been focused on Wembley Park for the past two decades, but has recently set up a subsidiary in Ireland and is preparing to expand more widely. Chief executive James Saunders said: “We want to make Tipi as strong as possible, extending it around the UK and potentially overseas. Continental Europe is a possibility but the characteristics have to be correct. The region is different as it already has a lot of build-to-rent expertise. The US also has a number of very strong players and is not really on our horizon. We are the odd one out in the UK because we have had such a strong buy to let market. “Right now, the UK and Ireland offers us plenty of opportunity. We will focus on the UK market for the foreseeable as well as Ireland over the next three years.” Saunders stepped into the chief executive role in October 2019, replacing Angus Dodd. Quintain first launched Tipi in 2016 to offer an all-inclusive rental package at its Wembley Park site which has planning in place for 8,400 units. Wembley Park is one of London’s biggest housing delivery schemes, with over 3,200 homes currently under construction. Next year over 1,700 new rental homes will be delivered alongside new office and retail space. As well as European expansion, Saunders is also looking at ramping up the firm’s use of modular construction. Currently, Quintain sources all the bathrooms at Wembley Park from a Milan-based modular provider, but it is hoping to integrate a local provider on site. “We are using an Italian supplier as the quality is better. There hasn’t been the same quality so far in the UK. However, there is more and more of that movement towards having some of our factory production facilities based more locally. “We actually are considering setting up our own facility on the eastern side of the site. We have large industrial warehouses that we can use. These guys don’t need much to set up in, and there are significant advantages of producing more of the finished units closer to site. We are just doing modular bathrooms at the moment but we are looking at that whole area of more modular, leaner methods of construction.” Saunders said this will help Quintain achieve better economies of scale, with its ultimate ambition being to deliver around 30,000 units over the course of the next two decades. “I think in 20 years we will have series of similar regeneration sites to Wembley Park. We would like to have sites and estates under long-term management, including a significant portfolio of build-to-rent, something along the lines of 30,000 units.” To send feedback, e-mail anna.ward@egi.co.uk or tweet @annaroxelana or @estatesgazette