Barratt confirmed that two further joint ventures would bring the gross development value of the Group’s JVs in the capital to over £2 billion and it is now targeting 2,000 completions per year from its London business in the medium term.
In their first major partnership, British Land and Barratt London have secured planning permission for 463 homes, a 160 room hotel, retail and office space at Aldgate Place on the edge of the City. The development, which is adjacent to the Barratt London Alie Street site, will include three towers of over 20 storeys as well as public open space and a pedestrian street. It will have a GDV of around £250 million and work is scheduled to start early in 2014.
Barratt London has also confirmed that it is progressing a further JV with L&Q, to develop the Sainsbury’s site at Nine Elms. The site has GDV of £425 million with a detailed planning permission for 645 homes, a new Sainsbury’s store and around 27,000 square feet of retail and office space. This will be the Group's fourth JV in London with L&Q.
‘Our Barratt London business is expanding fast and we are now working on £2 billion of new developments with four JV partners – British Land, L&Q, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and Metropolitan Housing,’ said Mark Clare, group chief executive.
‘We are planning to deliver 2,000 new homes a year in London and our technical capability to deliver complex schemes in the capital is providing us with a competitive edge in securing new business,’ he added.
The Group is planning to grow the London business to an annual output of 2,000 completions including JV completions with 1,586 completions having been delivered in the year ended 30 June 2013.
The London business will continue to develop a range of residential and mixed use developments primarily in Central London and then tactically in other London boroughs. In the current portfolio, the residential units have selling prices ranging from £160,000 to £6 million.
The London business management team have an enormous collective experience of the London market and are led by Alastair Baird, regional managing director for London.
There will also be 770 homes with a gross development value estimated at £275 million on a riverside site in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The historic 8.9 acre site has 130 metres of river frontage and is located between the centre of Greenwich and the O2 Arena. Construction of the residential elements, including 154 affordable homes, will start in autumn 2013.
Phase one of a site in West Hendon was recently completed and has delivered 194 homes. An application for planning permission has been submitted for phase two of this development, which is expected to deliver a further 2,000 homes.
House building JV profit for the Group for the year to 30 June 2013 will be around £8 million and in the year to 30 June 2014 the firm expects this to increase to around £20 million.
The London business had a total of 14 active sites at 30 June 2013 excluding JVs and a substantial pipeline for future delivery. ‘We have been particularly successful within the London market in 2013 and have approved six new major sites in central London, excluding JVs, with an aggregate gross development value of around £771 million,’ said Baird.
