ULI UK Residential Council to launch Edition 2 of “Build to Rent: A ULI UK Best Practice Guide”
Launched in April 2014, when there was still significant market scepticism as to whether the nascent private rented sector in the UK was really going to succeed, it set out the differentiating factors in the design, development and management of purpose-built residential stock for the UK.
In the 2 years since then, we have seen an explosion of interest in Build to Rent projects with serious institutional investment. The BPF have launched their Build to Rent Manifesto, acknowledging it as a new emerging asset class, treading the footsteps of the student housing boom 10 years ago. The government’s PRS Taskforce delivered a series of policy and funding initiatives to support the sector, including a specific Build to Rent Fund and the IPF published an enormously helpful paper on viability.
We had always hoped that a second Guide might be feasible, when we could move from proving that the Build to Rent concept could work in the UK, to demonstrating true best practice in a UK context. We were all conscious that we had depended on US examples in the first edition, because there simply weren’t any live case studies here. We are delighted that this new edition features, not only 3 brand new chapters and 5 fully revised chapters but also numerous homegrown case studies of real schemes, both purpose-built and retrofitting of existing buildings to be managed in the way that we outlined.
Please join us on Friday 4th March at the Royal Geographical Society to be the first to hear what is in the second edition of Build to Rent: A ULI UK Best Practice Guide. Our chapter leads will outline the new content in their respective chapters and we will also have an expert panel discuss what lies ahead for Build to Rent in the UK.”