Edinburgh and Manchester-based rented housing developer Sigma Capital Group said on Monday it signed a new collaboration agreement with Countryside Properties plc, its principal home building partner, to deliver up to 5,000 new private rental sector (PRS) homes over the next three years.
“The new agreement marks the further expansion of Sigma and Countryside’s existing, well-established and successful relationship, and follows a similar agreement signed in June 2018 for the delivery of 5,000 PRS homes,” said Sigma.
“Homes under the existing agreement have now either been built or are in process.
“The new agreement will support both companies’ growth ambitions, and delivery is across multiple regions of England.
“As before, the agreement enables Sigma to map out housing delivery effectively and allows Countryside to deliver homes more quickly on its larger, mixed tenure sites.”
Sigma Capital Group plc CEO Graham Barnet said: “We are delighted to be extending our relationship with Countryside with this new collaboration agreement.
“Our partnership over the past six years has been a highly successful one, and this agreement will allow us to plan more effectively the further delivery of up to 5,000 new rental homes over the next three years.
“The need for well-managed, high-quality rental housing remains a priority for most parts of the country. We look forward to continuing to help meet this need.”
Countryside Properties plc CEO Iain McPherson said: “We are pleased to be furthering our long-standing partnership with Sigma Capital, who shares our commitment to delivering high quality, professionally managed rental homes for families across the country.
“We continue to see attractive opportunities within our partnerships business to deliver much needed, high quality and sustainable mixed-tenure communities in the UK.”
Sigma also announced it has negotiated and completed the acquisition of a fully-let development of new rental homes in Greater Manchester for £19 million from BlackRock Assets on behalf of The PRS REIT plc.
Sigma said the transaction marks the full commitment of the PRS REIT’s funding resource of £900 million.
“The development, which was independently valued by Savills prior to acquisition, generates a passing rent of c. £1.16m per annum, and accelerates income delivery for the PRS REIT,” said Sigma.
“It brings the total number of completed homes in the PRS REIT’s portfolio to 3,163, providing an estimated rental value (ERV) of c. £29.4m per annum.
“An additional c. 2,000 homes are currently under way at varying stages of development, which take the PRS REIT to its investment objective of establishing an initial portfolio of c. 5,200 new rental homes, with an ERV of £50m per annum when fully completed and let.
“The newly acquired development was sourced and completed for Blackrock by Sigma’s PRS property platform in June 2019, and was constructed to the same specification as other sites in the PRS REIT’s portfolio.
“The homes are rented under the ‘Simple Life’ brand.”