Build To Rent developer, investor and operator PLATFORM_ has acquired a 1.8-acre riverside site in the centre of Bristol for a new scheme of over 300 new homes.
 
The company claims that with only four operational BTR developments currently in the city, the provision of purpose-built BTR is far less in Bristol than other regional cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.
 
PLATFORM_ is now targeting a planning submission to Bristol council in January 2025: if it’s agreed, this will take the firm’s operational pipeline exceed 4,000 units at a combined value at £1.3 billion.
 
The site has been earmarked for residential development in Bristol council’s Frome Gateway Spatial Regeneration Framework. PLATFORM_ intends to include flexible employment space on the ground floor, a new riverside walk, and a pocket park in its proposals.

Company spokesperson Stewart Knight says: “We are delighted to have secured a site in Bristol as the city has been at the top of our target list for a long time. We were attracted by the combination of a strong local economy, excellent demographics and a real shortage of high quality, well-managed rental accommodation. We’re looking forward to working with the city’s planners to bring forward a planning application to deliver much needed new housing.”

Looking sector-wide, recent analysis from the British Property Federation (BPF) shows a dramatic slump in the number of Build To Rent units started.

Although delivery of completed units has been strong – completion levels hit 22,000 over the preceding 12 months – the number of starts has fallen thanks to what the BPF calls “the stickiness of the ongoing challenges in the sector, including build cost inflation and cost of debt” along with “investors … impacted by economic and political uncertainty.” 

The analysis, conducted with Savills, found completions running at over two and a half times the average for the period 2017-19. They are now “starting to make an appreciable difference to housing delivery across a growing number of locations within the UK” claims the BPF.

When included with those homes under construction, or with planning approval, there’s been year-on-year BTR growth of 4%. The total sector pipeline is now close to 262,000 new homes, or just over the five-year average of total housing completions of all tenures across England of 210,000 dwellings per year.

But the slump in starts makes disturbing reading for the sector. For the third quarter in a row the number of completions has remained above the number of starts, with the gap between the two now widening to 10,600 homes, up from 3,400 in the previous quarter.

This is reflected in the sharp contraction in the number of homes currently under construction, down 19% compared to Q2 2023. In London, the fall has been more acute at 21% to 13,200, compared to the regions which have fallen by 19% to 32,200. Across the period Q2 2023 to Q2 2024 there were only 11,500 starts in total, down 30% from the 2017-19 Q2 average. 

Ian Fletcher – BPF director of policy – warns: “More action is needed to convert planning consents to starts on site and bring new schemes forward through the planning process. We need continued growth to service huge rental demand and look forward to working with the new government to make that happen.”

And Guy Whittaker – head of UK BTR research at Savills – adds: “”It is clear though that more must be done to encourage the number of units under construction to address the 19% decline seen over the past 12 months. This will ensure a steady flow of new homes comes forward to meet demand and meet the wider regenerations benefits  of BTR.”