Grainger’s rental growth slows again despite ‘strong demand’

The occupancy rate for its private rented portfolio stood at 96% in the four months to the end of January. This represents a slight fall compared to its full-year results for 2024-25, when its build-to-rent occupancy rate was 98.1%.

In other news, Grainger announced that its latest London scheme, Seraphina in Canning Town, has been fully let in under four months. It was recently reported that the landlord had been leasing 50 homes out of 132 in the scheme per month, equating to 38%.

Construction has also begun on Grainger’s second build-to-rent scheme in Guildford, Surrey, providing 179 new homes. An additional 98 homes have already been completed on the site.

Grainger said that its market is “structurally supported”, as demand for private rented homes continues to grow and the undersupply of rental housing worsens, driven by small private landlords facing increasing headwinds and new competitor supply slowing.

The landlord added that its pipeline is expected to create significant earnings growth, with the potential to grow further by selling non-core properties, which will generate around £500m to build and buy more homes over the coming years.

Grainger will announce its half-year results for the six months to 31 March in May this year.

Grainger is the UK’s biggest build-to-rent landlord, with a portfolio of 14,400 rental homes, of which 9,900 are operational.

Helen Gordon, chief executive of Grainger, said: “Our outlook is strong and positive, with market-leading earnings growth to come and a proven ability to deliver sustainable rental growth and high occupancy, driven by our leading operational platform.”

Last month, billionaire Mike Ashley acquired a 3.1% stake in Grainger. Mr Ashley acquired the stake in Grainger through a spread bet.

This move will allow Mr Ashley to bypass the 0.5% stamp duty on purchases as he bets on price movements, because he did not buy the stock outright.