A division of a national property developer,that specialises in Social housing, is now turning its attention to the private rented sector. It has announced that it has acquired a site in the Norwich City Centre with pre-approved planning permission for a new build of 437 apartments, of which 150 will be for private rent.

The group has purchased a former brewery which will be redeveloped, it has an existing range of tenures that include shared ownership and market sale.

Paul Tennant, chief executive, said: “This is a new step for us, but it is certainly one we must take. With the current housing market impacting the tenure requirements of our customers, housing providers need to be smarter and develop their customer offer to meet the needs of the market.
 
“The introduction of our market sale programme to fund the delivery of more new homes has seen huge success, and contributed to us achieving our largest surplus to-date in 2013-14 –

PRS (private rented sector) is the natural next step for us.”

The group has a target of being able to deliver 12,000 new homes by 2020,  the Norwich development that is due to start next year and to be completed by 2019, is included in their vision.