Strong market and growing demand
Demand for renting in the UK has been steadily increasing for the past decade, now representing one in five households. There is a chronic undersupply of housing across the UK with demand far outstripping supply across all housing tenures.
This trend is set to continue as more and more people choose to rent for longer, taking advantage of the flexibility and lifestyle benefits that renting provides.
The housing supply-demand imbalance within the UK private rented sector provides Grainger with an excellent market opportunity to help meet the growing need for good quality, professionally managed rental homes.
Currently, the build to rent sector accounts for just 1.5% of the total UK rental market. Meanwhile, existing supply is reducing as buy-to-let landlords continue to exit the market.
With new housing supply levels falling significantly short of the demand, Grainger is perfectly placed to help support the delivery of these much-needed new homes.
Our strategy
Our strategy is simple. We want to continue to lead the UK Private Rented Sector, responding to increasing demand by delivering thousands of new high-quality homes for rent. We want to use our industry leading operational platform to lease and operate these homes, with a deep commitment to excellent service and a positive rental experience.
In doing so, we will deliver strong, sustainable returns for our shareholders.
We focus on providing quality homes at rents reflective of local incomes, ensuring that they are accessible to the widest pool of customers possible.
Through our growth we are achieving clusters of assets, providing greater scale and operating efficiencies, enabling us to grow our rents and increase net rental income.
OUR BUSINESS MODEL
A holistic approach
Our business model covers every element of the rental process, from sourcing the right site in a good location to designing and building homes, to serving the people who live in them. It’s an integrated approach that ensures we create sustainable homes and value for our customers, communities and shareholders.
Planning, designing and developing sustainable buildings to our own specification ensures we maintain our high-quality standards, whilst also delivering properties that are durable and efficient to run and desirable to renters.
Our investment process begins with comprehensive research to identify cities and locations with the highest rental demand and greatest growth potential. We invest in sites in safe neighbourhoods that provide residents with good proximity to public transport and local amenities and services.
When we identify a suitable location, we look to build a cluster of schemes both to capture the high demand and also to generate operational efficiencies.
Powered by technology, our operational platform sets us apart. Our c.10,000 operational homes are all managed by our inhouse team. Ours is a business that supports scale, and as we grow and create clusters, we become even more efficient.
Our operating model focuses on three key elements:
- customer experience
- operational efficiency
- licence to operate
We continuously invest in our people, processes and technology to further improve our customer’s experience and enhance our market leading offering, whilst enabling our growth.
Helping shape UK renting
We’re not just set to succeed in this growing market – we’re poised to help shape it. It’s why we’re making investments that will double our portfolio in the coming years. Why we’re developing technology that will change the way people rent homes. And it’s why we’re using our unique position to work with the UK government and private organisations to create housing solutions that will benefit customers and communities alike.
AN EXCELLENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
With more than 110 years of experience in renting homes, we are committed to operational excellence, great customer service and a hassle-free rental experience. We know that this is a differentiator that helps us achieve high occupancy rates, strong retention and sustainable rental growth.
We take customer feedback seriously and we are proud that 9 out of 10 residents ‘really like their Grainger home’, and the average Grainger PRS customer stays with us for nearly three years.
We aim to improve rental standards in the UK by offering high quality homes that are professionally managed on fairer terms.
Technology that makes renting simple
We believe that great connections make life better. That’s why we’re investing in technology across our business, and why we’ve created a digital solution that puts the entire rental process online and an App that enables customers to book appointments with our team, log a repair or maintenance request, book an amenity space, or finding out more about the local area.
Behind the scenes, technology supports the efficient running of all business functions within Grainger as we scale-up. It means our team is able to link everything from marketing to payment processing, giving them more control and greater efficiency.
License to operate
We take our responsibilities as a landlord seriously and we know that above anything, the health and safety of our residents, employees and partners comes first.
Live.Safe, our best in class health and safety programme, puts health and safety at the forefront of every element of our business.
Partnering for growth
Partnerships with public sector organisations enable us to bring forward land in public ownership to deliver much needed homes, and to create long-term income for our public sector partners that can be reinvested into public services.
We’ve formed long-term, highly successful partnerships with a number of private and public sector organisations, including Transport for London, Lewisham Borough Council and Cubex.
Connected Living London
Connected Living London is our joint venture partnership with TfL which will deliver over 3,000 well designed and sustainable homes across London.
By combining Transport for London’s land and skills with Grainger’s expertise and experience in the Build to Rent sector, we can provide thousands of homes that the Capital desperately needs.
Together we will deliver:
- Vibrant new mixed communities across the Capital.
- 40% affordable housing across all sites.
- Environmentally conscious homes built to last.
- Secure and stable returns over the long term.
- An extensive programme of community engagement activity was undertaken to ensure local residents feed into the design of our new places and spaces.
- Planning permission has been secured on five schemes, delivering over 1500 new homes.
Partnerships
Some of our partners include:
- London Borough Lewisham
- West Berkhire Council
- Transport for London
- Canal & River Trust
- London Pension's Authority
- Cubex