Rentplus has contributed to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry on Affordable Homes. This has now been published. In the evidence, we said that, from our discussions with investors, we know that there is strong and widespread interest in investing in the affordable housing sector. There are billions of pounds waiting to be unlocked if local government was more amenable to accepting institutional investment and if the Government did more to encourage local authorities to do so and break down the existing cultural barriers.
Rentplus believes that the government should be actively encouraging local authorities to embrace and seek innovation and alternative funding structures to ensure that sufficient affordable housing is delivered in the areas where it is most needed.
Read further: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/111468/pdf/
Brand new affordable rent to buy homes are almost ready for allocation in a first for Mid-Sussex.
The lovely three and two bed houses in Copthorne Road, Felbridge, will see rents between £950pcm and £1140pcm inclusive of service charge.
Priority is given to tenants living in a local Housing Association property in the Mid Sussex District (first priority) or those registered on the MSDC Common Housing Register (second priority).
Tenants move in with £0 deposit and can buy 100% of their home at years 5, 15, 15 or 20 and will receive a 10% gifted sum from Rentplus.
Rentplus turns renters into homeowners. More information here.
The first sales of Rentplus homes to its tenants, turning renters into homeowners, was the focus of a case study in an article originally published in the Local Government Association’s first magazine and appears courtesy of the LGA.
The Plymouth homes were some of the first schemes to see tenants move in with no deposit and then start to buy 100% of their home.
With the funds they had saved since 2016, together with the 10% deposit that Rentplus gifted them, some tenants had as much as 25% equity in their home from day one, needing just a 75% mortgage on the property.
Thank you to Cllr Smith for the case study and to all the officers and members at Plymouth City Council, and Tamar Housing (now Willowtree) for the support and for being part of this extraordinary journey.
This was just the start of something special.
Rentplus-UK is seeking a Housing Officer.
You will support the effective operational management of the Rentplus residential portfolio. Work effectively with our RP partners, managing agents and head landlords. Assist the monitoring and managing the performance of our RP partners, managing agents, sales agents and other stakeholders. And support the successful sale and disposal of Rentplus residential assets. Preferably based in our Plymouth office but we also have an office in Milton Keynes.
If you have experience in Property or Leasehold Management and/or Affordable Housing, please get in touch.
Job Description for the role is available here.
Closing date will be 14th September.
“Rentplus sounds too good to be true.” This was the response from solicitors who carried out the conveyancing for the buyers of the first Rentplus homes.
These thoughts were also shared by Manoj and Mary when they first heard about Rentplus five years ago. The couple struggled to save for a deposit to own their dream home whilst living in a small flat with their children, whilst paying high private rent.
Learn more through our case study
This week, local MP Lee Rowley joined leader of the council Cllr Nigel Barker to celebrate a new partnership – the first of its kind in North East Derbyshire. The two met some of the tenants who are moving into their new homes later this month.
Rentplus-UK, the award winning affordable rent to buy provider, is working with North East Derbyshire District Council to offer the new homes on the Woodhall scheme at Clay Lane, Clay Cross.
Steve Collins, CEO of Rentplus explains why Rentplus is needed. “With the average house price for first-time buyers in North East Derbyshire over £211,000, many working households on lower or middle incomes are locked out of home ownership as they are unable to save enough for a deposit, even though they could afford mortgage repayments.
“Our affordable rent to buy provides a much more accessible route onto the housing ladder for those on lower and middle incomes than Shared Ownership as it doesn’t require any upfront deposit. our scheme completely removes the deposit barrier, opening up home ownership to renters living or working in the area.
“Rentplus turn local renters into homeowners.”
Tenants move in without paying an initial deposit and then rent their home at an affordable rent (which includes all repairs and service charges) for between 5 and 20 years whilst they save. When ready to buy, they receive a gifted deposit of 10% from Rentplus towards their savings. Unlike Shared Ownership, tenants purchase their full home.
Funded by institutional investment, new homes are bought from developers either as part of their affordable housing agreement or outside of it. By injecting additional private funding into the affordable housing sector, councils can focus existing grant funding on delivering more homes for social rent.
Over 60 local authorities are already offering Rentplus. across the country and a similar scheme in Bolsover opened in 2022.
Across the country, the majority of Rentplus residents are key or essential workers, and this is true of the Clay Lane residents too. All have a local connection, living and working locally.
North East Derbyshire District Council Leader, Councillor Nigel Barker said, ”I’m delighted we’ve offered such a fantastic scheme to some of our wonderful residents, who will be moving in to these brand new houses in the coming weeks. We’re committed to offering our residents new housing solutions, not only here but in the years to come.”
MP Lee Rowley has also welcomed the scheme. “I’m very impressed with what I have seen today and I’m looking forward to seeing people move into their Rentplus home. The key thing is to give people choices: whether to rent or to buy, or something in-between. What’s so good about this is that it allows people to become homeowners in the medium or long term but doing it in a way that helps people in the short term.”
Rentplus and North East Derbyshire District Council are currently looking for more housing developments where Rentplus can be offered.
The latest Rentplus film was premiered at the Local Government Association annual conference at the end of June. It is the third in a series of films outlining the journey of Rentplus from its start, to proving the model works, and how Rentplus is turning renters into homeowners.
Rentplus founder, Rich Pillar talks about how Rentplus was designed to help people on lower and middle incomes. It was targeted to help those unable to save the large deposits required to get onto the housing ladder.
In 2016, the first Rentplus tenants moved into their homes in Plymouth and Sherborne. In 2021 they moved from being renters to homeowners. Rentplus sold 100% of the homes scheduled to be sold to tenants at the end of the first 5 year period.
Those new homeowners are now buying 100% of their homes through high street mortgages. Because they paid affordable rent, most were able to save significant sums and these, together with the 10% gifted deposit from Rentplus, gave some tenants an immediate 20/25% equity in their homes.
Rich said: “I am immensely proud of the model we created because 100% of all our people who planned to buy after 5 years are now homeowners. We’ve just been the surrogate bank of mum and dad,” he added.
The film also pays tribute to two councils – Plymouth City and Dorset Councils -and Tamar Housing. They were the torchbearers for the innovative new scheme and instrumental in proving Rentplus works!
In the film, Plymouth City Councillor Rebecca Smith talks about how Rentplus adds value: “Councils like Plymouth do not have a ready pot of money to be building houses itself.
“The challenges Plymouth faces are not unique. Plymouth has done a lot of the groundwork which will help this scheme embed within your community.
“We have no reservations in encouraging other local councils to do what we have done.”
Rentplus is working with councils across the country to help people achieve their homeownership dream.
Rentplus turns renters into homeowners.
You can watch the film here https://vimeo.com/723793579
In celebration of the Queen’s 70th Jubilee, Rentplus-UK is talking with partner developers and housing associations to encourage them to plant a Rentplus tree on all new and existing Rentplus developments throughout this Jubilee Year.
With nearly 150,000 homes in its pipeline, across 500 new developments, Rentplus hopes to be planting trees in Devon, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire where it has tenanted homes already. It’s hoped that the first of the new developments to have a tree planted will be in North Yorkshire on the new Kirkbymoorside site this July.
Steve Collins, CEO, said: “Building houses has an effect on the environment and that is why Rentplus is already looking at building homes using modern methods of construction.
“We aim not just to build more environmentally sound homes for lower- and middle-income earners, but to continue to build homes which enhance the environment aesthetically and environmentally.
“Planting new trees will help us mark The Royal Jubilee and provide a focus point for local Rentplus communities.
“We will also offer existing residents small fruit trees to grow in pots in their gardens and will support our housing association partners to find space to plant more trees on existing sites. We’re already talking to developers to encourage them to plant Rentplus trees as part of their local landscaping.”
Planting trees helps reduce emissions by locking up carbon. These new trees will provide new habitats for wildlife, bringing birds and bees to the public spaces on our developments and in our families’ gardens. Green spaces are also good for our mental wellbeing, as the recent pandemic has shown.
Rentplus-UK and South Devon Rural Housing Association (SDR) are forming a new partnership to offer more affordable rent to buy homes across the whole of Devon, plus parts of the east side of Dorset and Somerset.
Rentplus is a proven affordable rent-to-buy scheme operating across England. Tenants move in with no deposit and pay affordable rent for between five and 20 years. This gives them time to save a deposit and build a good credit rating. When they are ready to buy, Rentplus gifts them 10% of the purchase price to boost their savings and enable them to purchase 100% of their home.
In 2021, the first renters who moved into Rentplus homes without any deposit in Plymouth and Sherborne were able to purchase their home after just five years. Many had managed to save a significant sum, which together with the gifted 10%, meant they had equity of 20-25% in their home from day one and could access a high street mortgage.
There has been much debate and research about the housing crisis in the South West and the need for affordable housing to be made available to help address job vacancies in the region. Rentplus homes have proven to be very popular to, the key and essential worker demographic, with over 50% of Rentplus homes across the country allocated to this group.
Rentplus has already identified several sites across Devon where it might initially offer nearly 50 affordable rent-to-buy homes to deliver home ownership for local working people in partnership with SDR.
Steve Collins, Rentplus CEO, said: “This new partnership between Rentplus and SDR means more affordable rent-to-buy housing will be available to local aspiring home-owners.
“For many, especially those paying high private rents, there is little or no ability to save for a deposit, although ironically they could probably afford monthly mortgage repayments.
“This innovative, award-winning scheme gives people the chance to clear debts, build a strong credit history and to save money, whilst offering them the safety and security of a long-term tenure. At the end of their tenure, when they buy, we gift them 10% of their homes’ value to boost their savings. We look forward to delivering more affordable rent-to-buy homes in South Devon, turning local renters into homeowners”.
Christine Candlish, Chief Executive at SDR, added: “We’re delighted to be working with Rentplus and are looking forward to helping local people realise their home ownership aspirations.
“We know that Devonians have a wide range of housing needs. We have people who see social rented homes as a solution because they don’t think they are able to get on the housing ladder. The Rentplus scheme is an innovative way to address this, as it allows people to move in with no deposit and pay affordable rent for set periods. At the end of their tenure – either 5, 10, 15 or 20 year terms – they can buy the home they are living in with a gifted sum.
“Having more Rentplus homes in Devon will help local people to stay living and working in the area. This supports delivery of a key objective of SDR’s corporate strategy, enabling working people to create homes where they want to live and bring up their children, whilst helping to nurture stable communities in the longer term”.
The partners will work together to allocate the homes through Devon Home Choice, the local authority lettings system, and will announce the schemes as they become ready.
Rentplus has responded to The DailyTelegraph article “Michael Gove paves way for council house explosion” with a letter.
Sir
The Levelling Up Secretary is proposing to axe rules forcing developers to build affordable homes in favour of imposing a levy on them to pay to local authorities.
Councils will invariably spend this on social housing. Although this is much needed, the effect will be to close off the potential for billions of pounds of private funding to be invested in affordable housing. Existing s106 delivery ensures there is a mix of tenures on qualifying sites which helps form mixed communities. Delivery through councils could see a return to mono-tenure developments which history shows doesn’t work. Private sector providers work in partnership with local authorities and registered providers to bring new investment and new innovation into social housing.
As an innovative provider of affordable, rent to buy housing using institutional investment, Rentplus is delivering eventual home ownership for those on low to middle incomes. We do this through Section 106 agreements with developers. This proposal risks stifling such private investment which, collectively, would provide much more affordable housing at no cost to taxpayers through the exchequer than from handing the proceeds of a levy to councils.
Instead, the Government should be doing more to encourage institutional investment in line with the Chair of Homes England, who has extolled the significant opportunities for institutional capital to deliver new affordable housing.
Yours
Steve Collins
Chief Executive