New £1.4billion vehicle for rented homes

The investors behind residential schemes at the Olympic Park in Stratford and Elephant & Castle have merged the developments to create a £1.4bn vehicle for rented homes. Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, which is owned by the State of Qatar, property firm Delancey, and Dutch pension fund asset manager APG have merged the assets to create a new company with 4,000 homes, 1,500 of which are already built. The partnership said its ambition was to become the leading player in the delivery of homes for rent in London and other major UK cities over the next few years. The merger is conditional upon regulatory approval. All of the homes will be managed and leased through Get Living London, an existing management and letting platform. Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani, chief development officer for Europe and the Americas at Qatari Diar, said, “This merger between two leading London private rented sector schemes is the first step in what is a much larger endeavour: to significantly increase the supply of new homes in connected and affordable locations in British cities.” The private rented sector (PRS) has boomed in recent years as requirements for sizeable deposits and stricter lending criteria have made it harder…