Member Article

East Village and Elephant & Castle merger creates £1.4bn private rented estate

Developers behind two major residential developments in London have merged the two schemes to create a £1.4bn large scale residential estate.

Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, Delancey, and the Dutch pension fund asset manager, APG, have combined their East Village and Elephant & Castle developments to create a portfolio of 4,000 new private rented homes.

Established on the former site of the Olympic Village, East Village was previously a joint venture between Delancey’s flagship client fund DV4 and Qatari Diar, and has already seen the construction of 1,500 homes with detailed planning consent for a further 1,500.

The scheme at Elephant & Castle, which is part of a wider £3bn regeneration effort in the area, was previously owned by Delancey and APG, and has planning permission in place for just under 500 homes on the site of the old Elephant & Castle shopping centre.

Jamie Ritblat, founder and chief executive, Delancey, said: “This merger marks the end of the beginning for our efforts to deliver desperately needed innovation, scale and true customer experience to the UK’s residential market.

“From a blank sheet of paper in 2010, we have worked tirelessly alongside forward thinking global institutions in a number of separate strategies to build the foundations of a very significant enterprise for the long term.

“We have been pioneers as the first major investors in large scale professionally managed residential, now with over 2,600 residents living in our homes and increasing every week. Bringing our businesses and partners together into a single group marks an important early landmark, and delivers the first new powerhouse to this exciting new investment class.”

Property firm Get Living London, who currently look after the East Village scheme, will manage and lease the properties created by the new partnership.

Neil Young, Chief Executive Officer at the project management business, added: “This merger provides Get Living London the opportunity to create more authentic neighbourhoods for residents to enjoy.

“We have learned from creating a vibrant community at East Village and are excited about employing this knowledge in other areas of London and throughout the UK.

“Innovation of design and improving the customer experience are critical elements to creating great neighbourhoods. This merger will help us achieve that goal.”