The John Lewis Partnership is to build new rental homes, as it seeks to raise standards in rental property, it said, through the development and management of the buildings.
The retail giant said the homes would form part of the UK’s growing ‘built-to-rent’ property market, and the first three proposed sites include building over Waitrose shops in Bromley and West Ealing in Greater London, as well as replacing a vacant John Lewis warehouse in Mill Lane, Reading
Local people will be invited to several rounds of public consultation, but detailed designs will not be shown until later in the year – to give residents the opportunity to shape the plans during the early stages.
These locations are the first to be announced after the Partnership announced its target to deliver 10,000 homes in the next 10 years! Half of these will come from schemes on its own property portfolio.
The group said that moving into the rental homes market is part of its long-term plan for 40 per cent of profits to come from outside of retail by 2030.
The homes would come in different sizes and styles with options to have the homes furnished by John Lewis.
Nina Bhatia, Executive Director for Strategy and Commercial Development at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Everything people love about our brand – quality, trust and service – we want to bring to the experience of renting a home with us. Helping to create homes has always been at the heart of what we do and we now have a unique opportunity to use our expertise and skills in new ways to deliver much-needed new housing.”
