Edinburgh’s Sigma targets 5,000 rented homes

Edinburgh-based rented housing developer Sigma Capital Group announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with housebuilder Countryside Properties with a framework agreement targeting the delivery of a further 5,000 private rented sector (PRS) homes over the next three years.

“Sigma’s relationship with Countryside is well-established, with Countryside an early partner in Sigma’s PRS delivery platform,” said Sigma.

“In December 2014, an initial agreement was signed with Countryside for the delivery of 927 homes, which was extended to include a further 900 homes in February 2016.

“During the year to 30 September 2017, Countryside delivered 721 PRS homes for Sigma across the North West of England and the West Midlands.

“The new framework agreement significantly enhances Sigma’s relationship with Countryside and supports the growth ambitions of both parties.

“Countryside has a reputation for the quality of its product, and a recent acquisition has broadened its geographic reach, supporting plans to accelerate its home building partnership with Sigma.

“As investment adviser to The PRS REIT plc,  Sigma is responsible for the deployment of the PRS REIT’s resources in line with the REIT’s stated objectives, and a second fundraising, completed by the REIT on 20 February 2018, has raised significant additional equity resource.

“Together with gearing, Sigma anticipates deploying c.£900m in support of the PRS REIT’s aim of establishing a significant portfolio of new-build rental homes across the major conurbations of the UK.”

Sigma CEO Graham Barnet said: “We are delighted to be extending our highly successful relationship with Countryside, one of the UK’s leading home builders, which regularly wins awards for its work.

“This major new agreement targets the delivery of 5,000 high-quality family homes across a number of regions over the next three years – over and above those already built or in process.

“There is a structural shortage of housing in the UK, across all tenures, and our unrivalled delivery platform brings together local authorities, home builders and funders with the common aim of creating new, professionally-managed rental homes for families, a largely neglected and growing part of the overall rental market.”

Countryside CEO Ian Sutcliffe said: “We have been a long-standing partner of Sigma and are delighted to continue working together.

“This new agreement supports the continued expansion of Countryside’s Partnerships division and our mixed tenure delivery model.

“It will allow us to speed up the delivery of homes more quickly on larger Partnerships sites and meet the strong demand we are seeing for our product.”