Willmott Dixon said in a statement that the new company, called be:here, has secured funding from M&G Investments’ Secured Property Income Fund for its first project at East India Dock in east London.
The scheme, which will be located on a site adjacent to the East India Dock DLR station, will comprise 233 flats to provide a mix of private rental and affordable homes. The scheme is part of a wider regeneration of the Aberfeldy estate in Tower Hamlets which will see the development of nearly 1,200 homes over a ten year period.
Under the terms of the agreement, the development will be owned by M&G and the PRS element will be managed by be:here. Throughout the wider Aberfeldy scheme, be:here will add PRS housing to the mix of homes being developed.
The East India Dock scheme has obtained planning consent and work is expected to start immediately to enable occupation to begin in 2015.
Willmottt Dixon's divisional chief executive Andrew Telfer said that the East India Dock scheme is "the start of a process where be:here will create homes for private rent on an ambitious scale, working with institutions that recognise the sector’s enormous potential to provide long-term revenue to their portfolios and our role in making that happen".
He added that be:here had been developed by asking "thousands of renters what they want" and that the company would offer "a positive alternative to home ownership".
Willmott Dixon said that be:here is looking to acquire further sites for PRS development across the capital as well as at central locations in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. It said that focus would be on sites capable of accommodating developments comprising between 100 and 400 flats.
