A £7million housing project has been completed in Plymouth – and the ambitious firm behind it is already building 850 homes across the South of England.
Renplus, Plymouth’s innovative rent-to-buy company, has just unveiled the first phase of its Hartley Gardens project in the city.
The 10 houses and 10 apartments sit on the hillside site where a former local authority care facility was demolished.
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A further nine houses, of up to five-bedrooms, are already being constructed in phase two, but Rentplus bosses are keen to highlight that this is just one development and it is expanding nationwide with an ambition to start construction in the North West and North East soon.
Steve Collins, Rentplus chief executive, said: “We have gone from being Plymouth based to national coverage, in the past 18 months there has been significant progress.”
Rentplus has been receiving plaudits from politicians and won the prestigious 2019 National Housing Award’s Most Innovative Home Ownership Solution honour.
It works with sister firm Pillar Land Securities to build homes, some of which are sold on the open market but others offered under the Rentplus model.
This is where tenants are given the opportunity to purchase their property after five, 10, 15 or 20 years and are given a gifted deposit, of 10%, from Rentplus to help.
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The company works with local authorities and housing associations to deliver the homes. At Hartley Gardens, where 44% of the homes are classed “affordable”, the land was released by owner Plymouth City Council and some of the houses are managed by Tamar Housing.
Pillar Land Securities worked with these bodies to create a new legal structure, to develop the 1.65-acre site, delivering affordable rent-to-buy, via Rentplus, for aspiring home owners on low to middle incomes.
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The Hartley Gardens project acted as the pilot for the model now being rolled out nationwide.
“We have invested about £85million to £90million in 850 homes,” said Mr Collins. “Our secured investment is effectively bottomless. We have a £50million revolving bond facility. We can raise bonds on the market and invest that. That’s good for another £50million. It’s limitless, but controlled.”
The Rentplus model was developed following talks with and support from the then Housing Minister Grant Shapps. The result of direct lobbying with the Government resulted in changes to the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) to allow for this tenure.
The site of Hartley Gardens had once housed Colonial House, home of medical pioneer Sir Leonard Rogers who developed a cure for tropical diseases. The site was last being used by Plymouth City Council for offices that were no longer required by the local authority.
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Already 80% of the properties in phase one have been sold, with phase two expected to be ready in April 2020.
Since it started work at the site Rentplus has opened new offices in Milton Keynes and London, built and tenanted about 400 new homes, with hundreds more under construction and a pipeline of 9,000 new homes across the country,
Rentplus has developed partnerships with national house builders and local authorities across the country and is quickly becoming recognised as a mainstream product.
Julie Barnett, chief executive of Tamar Housing, said the Rentplus model was ideal for “people that are not poor enough for social housing but not rich enough to purchase.”