Housebuilder Vistry has clinched a £580million agreement to sell 1,750 new homes to the investment heavyweight Blackstone and its associate Regis.
Blackstone, alongside its minority investor ally, is set to gain a significant batch of properties destined for the rental market. The properties will be under the management of Leaf Living, a private rental sector operator supported by Blackstone and Regis.
Focused in the South East across 36 Vistry locations, the housing stock mainly comes from Vistry's former landbank designated for housebuilding. The initial properties from this deal are anticipated to be completed by the end of this month, with the bulk expected to be completed within two years.
Vistry Group's chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said: "By working in partnership with organisations like Leaf Living, we can maximise the number of high-quality homes we deliver every year. This agreement supports our differentiated business model, with the certainty provided by the pre-selling of homes enabling us to accelerate our build programmes, guarantee work for our supply chain, reduce sales and build costs and create vibrant new communities."
Fitzgerald added: "This year we are on track to deliver more than a 10% increase in new home completions, playing a key part in helping to address the UK's acute housing shortage."
James Seppala, head of European real estate at Blackstone, said: "Institutional private capital can play an important role in providing high quality housing stock across the UK, particularly in the private rented sector which is significantly undersupplied today. Partnerships such as these can meaningfully accelerate the delivery of new homes and help alleviate structural undersupply across the sector."
After its acquisition of housebuilder Countryside for £1.25billion in 2022, Vistry has ramped up its efforts to construct affordable homes through partnerships. Peel Hunt analysts said: "We are not changing any forecasts on the back of this announcement, but see it as further reassurance that the partnerships model has legs."
They highlighted the company's success, saying: "The group has now signed nine notable deals since the start of September 2023, with a total of around 14,400 homes worth probably more than £4billion of revenue."
Despite the positive developments, Vistry's shares took a slight dip, falling by 0.7% on Tuesday afternoon.