John Lewis Partnership to site rental home development in Reading

John Lewis Partnership has chosen Reading as one of its three new rental home development locations.

The Reading site will replace the vacant John Lewis warehouse in Mill Lane with the other two developments being sited over Waitrose shops in Bromley and West Ealing in Greater London.

John Lewis is looking to tap into the growing 'built-to-rent' property market and alongside as acting as the developer it will manage the buildings once complete.

Nina Bhatia, executive director for Strategy and Commercial Development at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Everything people love about our brand -  quality, trust and service - we want to bring to the experience of renting a home with us. Our role as developer and operator, as well as an already established local business and employer, signals our ambition to bring long-term value to each of these communities. Helping to create homes has always been at the heart of what we do and we now have a unique opportunity to use our expertise and skills in new ways to deliver much-needed new housing.”

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The London headquartered firm will submit a planning application for the Reading site later this year following feedback from a public consultation.

Planning applications for the Bromley and West Ealing sites will be submitted next year.

John Lewis' accounts for this year showed profit before exceptional items was £181m for the year to January 29 which was up 38 per cent from the previous year and more than double the 2020 level.

Moving into the rental homes market is a key strand of its diversification strategy as the high street retailer looks to combat rising pressure from online competitors.

It has set a  long-term target of 40% of its profits to come from outside of retail by 2030.

The three locations are the first sites to be announced after confirming its target to deliver 10,000 homes in the next ten years with 5,000 of these will come from schemes in its own property portfolio.

The properties created would be built for  different sized households and would have long and short term rental options.

Plans for the homes include  roof gardens, fitness studios and will have a focus on community spaces.

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