Amid the ongoing housing shortage, UK privately-held group Topland is joining forces with London Green to launch a £200 mln (€252 mln) equity joint venture focusing on residential in central London and emerging areas in greater London.

Amid the ongoing housing shortage, UK privately-held group Topland is joining forces with London Green to launch a £200 mln (€252 mln) equity joint venture focusing on residential in central London and emerging areas in greater London.

Sol Zakay’s Topland will provide London Green with a cash war chest to source and quickly acquire residential property development and conversion projects across Greater London.

To date, London Green has built over 800 London homes. Established in 1998 by Philip Green, London Green initially focused on redeveloping large sites in up-and-coming areas. Redevelopments followed all over the capital, including the construction of nearly 500 residences adjoining the Olympic Park in Bow.

The Topland-led partnership has already exchanged on its first deal with the acquisition of an office with re-development potential in west London. It will be submitting a planning request for a residential-led scheme with a gross development value of over £75 mln.

'It is a particularly strong pairing combining our structured finance, investment and asset management experience with London Green’s planning and development expertise,' commented Topland’s structured finance director Tom Betts.

Topland is already active in the residential sector through a partnership with English Rose Estates. In late 2013 it bought the long leasehold interest in the upper parts of 406-408 Strand for £11.62 mln (€14 mln) from Legal & General Property (LGP).

The Strand scheme has planning consent to convert the upper sections of the building from offices into 13 luxury residential apartments.

In April in an equity joint venture with Urban Exposure Topland acquired a prime 3.4-acre site Dawn Hill, on the Wentworth Estate, Surrey, by the famous golf course, with plans to build a 25,000 sq ft mansion, with a development value of over £30 mln.