Moda unveils bold PRS plans

Moda Living, a new PRS joint venture between Yorkshire-based Caddick Developments and Generate Land, is targeting the North West in its launch pipeline with 400 units planned at NOMA in Manchester and 300 in Peel's Liverpool Waters.

Moda said it aims 'deliver best-in-class, single landlord, purpose-built' product across the UK. The initial secured development order book contains 2,750 units, valued at £580m. A further 3,000 a planned, which would take the portfolio value to £1bn if delivered.

Johnny Caddick, director of Moda Living, said: "Our development pipeline will focus primarily on UK cities which we feel present the greatest opportunities and as such we're looking to set the benchmark for delivering a residential investment portfolio across the country. We're already turning heads as we have more than 2,750 units under our control and we're in negotiation on further sites in key regional cities including Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool."

A planning application is due to be submitted shortly for the 36-storey Angel Gardens tower, the first residential component in the Co-operative and Hermes' NOMA masterplan. The design consists of 455 studio, one, two and three bed apartments. Amenities within the tower, which will be marketed for sale to a single investor, will include cinema room and business meeting space, a rooftop garden, gym and fitness classes, sport court and concierge services.

Jonny Caddick added: "Manchester has the fastest growing population outside London and is expected to significantly grow over the next 10 years in both GDP and household disposable income terms by 31% and 29%, respectively. Moreover, with 28.4%, or 58,000 households in Manchester falling into the private rented sector – often with both poor quality and poorly managed accommodation – the prospects for rental growth, in this city, are substantial."

In addition to the Angel Gardens scheme, Moda Living has agreed terms with Peel Group at Liverpool Waters. The development will consist of a 40-storey residential tower with more than 325 units and similar amenities to Angel Gardens.

Moda Living has appointed CBRE Residential investment as its retained advisors to market the rental blocks for sale in their entirety to investors in the UK and overseas.

Chris Lacey, executive director of residential at CBRE, said: "Much of this [money in the investment market] is searching for the right product and platform through which to invest as this opportunity is relative new to the UK. The timing is perfect for Moda Living to launch this new Platform and especially in its geographical area.

"The interested funds are mostly from UK, mainland European, Middle Eastern, Canadian and US pension fund and sovereign wealth investors. In the US we have a massive market. It's valued at around $22tn and trading around $100bn per annum. This residential sector accounts for around 20% to 25% of all US pension fund property investment, it's huge, and we deal with about seven times the annual business of any of our UK competitors. We see the international demand, the need for the right built product type, the big capital flows and the investment rationale behind this. This has enabled CBRE to lead the way in this new market with the only two big platform and strategic investment deals done so far, in December the £1.25bn joint venture between APG and Delancey and the March £500m joint venture between Notting Hill Housing Association and Sellar Design and Management.

"The Moda Living Platform for delivery and management, its product and geographical business plan and its significant "real" pipeline provides a quite unique opportunity for investors to co- invest. The regions and the South East are set for big growth and entry investment values are really quite low. CBRE, retained as advisor to Moda Living, are very confident that this will attract international interest and be the next ground breaking deal for the UK PRS market."

The architects on the NOMA scheme are HAUS Collective and Fuse Studios, with landscape architecture by Planit-ie. Planning advice is from Deloitte Real Estate, while Turner & Townsend will provide project and cost management advice. Tate Consulting is the services engineer and BuroHappold the structural engineer.