City Developments Limited (CDL) has bought a 250-year leasehold site in White City for its first private rented sector (PRS) in UK’s capital for £88m (€103m). 

CDL has agreed a forward-funding with developer HUB and sustainable impact investor Bridges Fund Management for the PRS development, consisting of a 17-storey apartment block with 209 co-living student units, which is expected to be completed in 2026.

Additionally, the company said, it would build a new seven-storey block adjacent to the Yardhouse site for the landowner, Women’s Pioneer Housing (WPH), a non-profit organisation providing affordable housing and service to single women. The latter will comprise 60 affordable housing units and commercial office on the ground floor.

The Yardhouse project marks the Singapore-listed group’s first co-living project in the UK and it is its fifth private rental project since 2019 when it first entered the UK market. It is currently present in Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.

Sherman Kwek, CDL’s group chief executive officer said: “Despite macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges, the UK PRS has proven to be an exceptionally resilient asset class with robust operational performance.”

Kwek said the latest acquisition will boost CDL’s portfolio to a total of 4,771 operational and pipeline units in the UK, Japan, Australia and the US.

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