Telford Homes names build-to-rent investors

Telford Homes has named property investment firms Invesco Real Estate and M&G Real Estate as long-term financial partners to develop its build-to-rent (BTR) schemes, following a search conducted by Savills.

The partnerships will be for an initial three-year period, but Telford said there was “an expectation from all parties that the relationships will continue beyond this”.

M&G will be the housebuilder’s priority partner when bidding for schemes up to 200 BTR homes, while Invesco will have priority on developments featuring more than 200 such units.

Telford, which saw its share price slump last week after it issued a profit warning prompted by a series of project delays, said the deal with the two firms would increase land-buying efficiencies and designing bespoke BTR schemes “that match up with each investors’ requirements”.

M&G has £22bn-worth of property investments in the UK, with recent projects including investing £119m in the Thames Quarter scheme in Reading, which when completed in 2021 by Gwynedd-based Watkin Jones will feature 315 BTR homes.

Read: Your essential guide to the UK housing sector

And Invesco has ploughed around £1.5bn into the development of 5,000 BTR homes in the UK since 2014 and said it aimed to invest at least £5bn in the sector in the next five years, with nearly a third of that focused on London and the south east.

Jon Di-Stefano, Telford Homes’ chief executive, described getting the two on board as “a major step forward” for the firm. “It underlines our reputation as one of the build-to-rent developers of choice in London.”

Invesco Real Estate’s residential investment director John German said his firm saw an increasing appetite for the sector both in London and the wider UK market “as it provides a key investment opportunity”.