Nowadays the majority of British banks are not openly lending, however a Kuwait backed Islamic bank is planning to become of one of the biggest residential landlords in the UK, as they are planning to build 6,600 rental homes to make a sure fire return because of the lack of decent housing properties.

If this plan does go ahead then it will be one of the biggest privately run home builds ever.

The marketplace, because of the economic situation, has seen a major shift from buying to renting as prices of mortgages are out of reach for many families and this is why the Gatehouse Bank is aggressively entering the market.

They have formed a joint venture with Sigma Capital, the London based property developer, to target this sector.

The first phase of the rollout will be to build 2,000 homes in the North West in Salford and Liverpool. Estimated cost of this initial foray is around £200 million. If this first phase is successful then they have planned to invest a further £500 million into 4,600 new homes for rent.

If their full rollout goes ahead, then the Gatehouse Bank will become the biggest stock market quoted landlord beating Grainger Trust that have currently 4,000 homes spread across London and the South East.

Gatehouse vice president of real estate Scott Nichol said: “For us the supply-demand dynamic is absolutely rock-solid. We only see that growing as affordability constraints continue to strengthen.”

 

He feels that the private rented sector is very disjointed as, on the whole, it is made up of many small private landlords.

“Our entrance into the market is to try and bridge the gap between landowners, developers and house builders, and the institutional market.”

Gatehouse already enjoys a £1 billion property portfolio across the US and UK.

Gatehouse Bank is Shariah-compliant and all investments are not just allowed to work on the basis of interest or monetary speculation. Any surpluses must be  shared by all parties.