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
Commenting on today’s UK House Price Index, Rentplus-UK Chief Executive Steve Collins said:
“At a time when hard working people are seeing their rent, transport, energy costs rise faster than their salaries, it has become ever more difficult for individuals and families to save enough for a deposit and realise their homeownership dreams.
“Every day, I hear from more families now having to raid their savings to pay for day-to-day living costs: each percentage increase in house prices drives their dream of home ownership further from reach.
“The failure of successive government-led ‘solutions’ to the UK’s housing problems to deliver, particularly for our key and essential workers, needs to be addressed. The country needs to now embrace proven innovative schemes, delivered through institutional investment, that makes no demands of the public purse but delivers homeownership for people by removing the deposit barrier.”
Selby District Council is working with Rentplus, the leading provider of affordable rent to buy homes, to offer 6 affordable rent to buy homes on the new Harron Homes site at The Hawthornes, Station Road, Carlton. These homes will give people who are living in or working in the area, a chance to move into a brand new home without the need for an upfront deposit.
It’s a first for Selby and the scheme will help aspirant homeowners who cannot raise a deposit to move into a brand new home with no deposit. Tenants sign up for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years and pay affordable rent (80% of local rates usually) before they are gifted 10% towards their savings when they buy their home. The rent includes all repairs whilst they are tenants.
Selby District Council is working with Rentplus-UK, the leading provider of affordable rent to buy homes, to offer 6 affordable rent to buy homes on the new Harron Homes site at The Hawthornes, Station Road, Carlton. It’s a first for Selby and these homes will give people who are living in or working in the area, a chance to move into and buy a brand new home without the need for an upfront deposit.
Raising a deposit to buy a home can seem out of reach for many: local residents, particularly key and essential workers who may be living in expensive or poor quality rented homes but who aspire to own their own new home. However, Rentplus provides an innovative and affordable new way for people to achieve their dream of home ownership.
Aspirant homeowners move into a brand new home with no deposit. Tenants sign up for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years and pay affordable rent (80% of local rates usually). This provides an excellent opportunity to save for a deposit and improve credit rating. Their landlord is a registered housing provider/housing association, and their rent includes all repairs whilst they are tenants. When the tenants are ready to buy at the end of their agreement, they are gifted 10% of the property’s value by Rentplus to boost the tenant’s savings and help them purchase their home.
Rentplus has been providing rent to buy homes for over 6 years, and has housed over 450 families around the country. This number is significantly growing every month. At the end of 2016, the first tenants moved into brand new homes with £0 deposit. In 2021, Rentplus sold 100% of the first five year homes, with the tenants using their savings and their gifted sum to put down deposits of 20-25% and purchase 100% of their home, unless shared ownership, or Help to Buy. Rentplus really does turn renters into homeowners.
Steve Collins, CEO at Rentplus, said: “Affordability is an issue across the country, and we are pleased to be able to offer this affordable rent to buy option and remove the deposit barrier to make dreams become a reality for people in Carlton.
“These much needed new homes will make a vital contribution to helping the area’s working families onto an affordable pathway to homeownership without the need for the upfront deposit.”
Leader of Selby District Council and Lead Executive Member for Housing, Leisure, Strategic Matters, External Relations and Partnerships, Cllr Mark Crane, added: “We know affordable housing is an issue and worry for our residents and this partnership provides an affordable way for local residents to get onto the property ladder.”
Aspiring homeowners looking for rent-to-buy must be either be living or working in the area or in education/training with local connections to Selby or North Yorkshire (excluding Harrogate).
The 6 attractive new build homes are all three bedroomed, with off street parking and are available now for people to express their interest by contacting Rentplus direct. Applicants should email [email protected] by 31st March.
New affordable rent to buy homes in Clay Cross, North East Derbyshire.
1x 3 bed and 6x 2 bed houses.
RENTS BETWEEN £564pcm to £660pcm.
Move in with £0 deposit and have the option to buy between years 5 and 20 with a 10% gifted sum from Rentplus. For information and how to apply, please see here.
February has been a month of difficult news for aspirant homeowners.
The Financial Times reports that inflation has reached the highest level for 30 years at 5.5%. The cost of living crisis and the hike in energy prices is biting with the UCL Social Research Institute suggesting that families are having to choose between food and staying warm as energy prices rise.
James Prestwich, director of policy and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing this month said that “pressures on affordability for those trying to get onto the housing ladder for the first time or to rent a home will not be helped by the rising cost of living.”
In terms of house prices, the ONS reported that they reached record levels in December 2021, pushing the deposit requirements higher still. Rental prices are no better, with The Guardian noting that they are rising at their fastest rate in five years. The team at JustBuildHomes reminded us that it will cost you at least seven times your salary to buy your first home – eleven times your salary if you want to buy in London.
For those able to start thinking about mortgages, The Telegraph had more bad news, saying that the best mortgage deals have disappeared, with banks raising interest rates. Nationwide figures highlighting worsening affordability in most parts of the UK was backed by ONS data illustrating why homeownership stays out of reach for many would be owners.
These factors have combined to create a difficult environment for first time buyers. According to Mortgage Strategy magazine, the uptake of First Homes remains patchy and there is a significant decline in Help to Buy purchases as the issue of raising a deposit becomes more challenging as the cost of living and housing increases rapidly. This ‘deposit barrier’ is the golden thread that ties these stories together.
Robert Colvile in the Sunday Times last week reported that the average deposit jumped from 102% of average income to a record 110%, and that in London it would take the average worker more than 15 years to save for a deposit at today’s rates. He also said that “Being able to own your own home is the essence of the good life” and discussed this crisis “poisoning the dreams of a generation.”
Despite this, there is some positive news for first time buyers. Over the past few months, Rentplus has continued to turn its renters into homeowners. Those first Rentplus tenants who moved into brand-new homes in 2016 with no deposit, on a 5-year agreement have now bought their homes. They paid affordable rent (80% of local private rents typically) to our housing association partners, giving them the ability to save at least the 20% difference. For many that was about £200 a month.
The following years have seen their savings grow and boosted by the 10% gifted sum from Rentplus on purchase, has given them real equity in their home from day one. They accessed high street mortgages with good deposits to fund the purchase of 100% of their home and the 2017 cohort are on track to purchase their homes too.
With all these challenges facing the latest generation of prospective homeowners, it is no surprise that we are seeing a massive uptick in interest in our services and affordable rent to buy in general. In some places, Rentplus home can be massively oversubscribed – with over 300 applicants bidding for 6 houses.
To facilitate growth and deliver more affordable rent to buy homes, Rentplus seeks new partnerships with local authorities local authorities who want to see their waiting lists reduced, housing developers and housing associations who want to offer an increased tenure and their income boosted with low-risk external investment.
All this means that, with continued cooperation, the needs of a generation of prospective first-time buyers can continue to be met. There is a silver lining, after all, to a situation which, at first glance, looks hopeless.
UK House Price Index for December 2021 has been released this morning. The index reported that the average price of a property in the UK has risen by 10.8% in the last year to £274,712. This also represents a 0.8% rise in the average price from November to December, the same increase as during the same period in 2020. In England, the average house price was £293,339, an increase of 10.7% on the year before and 1.1% on the previous month.
The report noted the results of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ January 2022 UK Residential Market Survey, which found that new buyer enquiries have also increased at the start of 2022. However, the UK Property Transactions Statistics showed that in December 2021, the estimated number of transactions of residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 20% lower than a year ago.
The index comes on the same day that the Office for National Statistics announced that inflation has risen to 5.5%, its highest level since March 1992, further adding to the pressure on households amid the cost of living crisis. Inflation is expected to hit more than 7% in April before falling in the second half of the year.
Commenting on today’s UK House Price Index Rentplus Chief Executive Steve Collins said:
“The latest rise in house prices and the continuing spike in inflation make it more difficult than ever for those on low and middle incomes to achieve their dream of home ownership.
“With sky-rocketing house prices, crippling energy costs and rising private rents, families are struggling to save any money and are eating into their savings. Each rise in house prices pushes the possibility of home ownership further away for many.
“Successive ‘solutions’ to the UK’s housing problems have repeatedly failed to deliver for those they purport to support – our key and essential workers. There is a real need to increase the use of proven, innovative approaches if we are to make any progress at real scale and give these groups the opportunity to own their own home.”
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/december2021
Lisa Hogarth has joined Rentplus taking up the role of Area Director in the North East of the country.
Newcastle-based Lisa will lead on developing Rentplus across the region, ensuring that local people on low/middle incomes can access affordable rent to buy homes.
She joins the business from Riverside Housing Association in a pivotal year which will see the award winning rent to buy business expand and grow, and celebrate its second year cohort of tenants transitioning from being renters into homeowners.
Steve Collins, Rentplus CEO welcomed Lisa to the business. ““With approaching 25,000 homes in our pipeline across the South of England and Midlands, Rentplus is now making great inroads into the North. We have tenants moving into brand new homes with no deposit on a site in Kirbymoorside – our first in Yorkshire – and some will buy their home in 2027, using our 10% gifted sum to add to their savings.
“Lisa’s experience across the housing and development sector in the North East will help us to quickly establish ourselves deeper into the North East. giving local people across the North East of England the chance to own their own home.
“I am delighted to welcome her to Rentplus.”
Lisa will work closely with John Walton, Regional Director for the East of England to bring new schemes to fruition, enabling more of our key workers and other lower and middle income families into homeownership.
She said: “We know there is a demand for working people to own their own home, but the ability to raise deposits prohibits many of the people we want to encourage to live here – our key and essential workers who are priced out of living near their work.
There is much talk about “levelling up” and giving people the chance to own their own home defines what that means for me.
“Rentplus delivers a real opportunity for them to get on the housing ladder.
“Rentplus has an ambitious growth strategy for the region and I am looking forward to delivering this. I will be contacting councils, developers and housing associations over the weeks ahead to deliver homeownership for those who aspire to own their own home but who cannot save the large sums needed.”
While the Government has yet to successfully address the housing crisis to date, we welcome today’s levelling up agenda and look forward to the implementation of real change. In particular, the ambition to ensure that by 2030 renters will have a secure path to ownership with the number of first-time buyers increasing in all areas.
To deliver their mission, the Government must do more to encourage local authorities to scale up their adoption of innovative models like affordable rent to buy, one of the most accessible and effective ways to enable renters to transfer to home ownership after just five years, or up to 20, without needing an initial deposit.
As the market leader in the sector, Rentplus has proven that the model works.