Hyde among bidders for Notting Hill Genesis’ 2,079-home private rental business

It has an ongoing shared ownership partnership with asset manager M&G and struck a for-profit affordable housing deal with Legal & General in March.

It is also believed a partnership between Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Ridgeback has moved to re-enter the sales process, after bowing out in the previous round. The duo is currently completing the £1.1bn purchase of a build-to-rent portfolio owned by L&Q.

NHG owns 68,000 homes across London, the South East and East Anglia. It put its 3,400-home PRS arm on the market in July 2025 to increase investment in its social homes and reduce debt. The portfolio now stands at 2,079 homes, because some of the homes are being sold separately or being retained by NHG for the time being.

NHG is also engaging with the regulator as it has non-compliant grades of C3/G3. 

Folio comprises 2,079 homes across London and Chelmsford, owned through a mix of freeholds and leaseholds. It was established by NHG in 2007 and is 98% let.

The portfolio was built over 16 years through a mix of acquisitions from developers during the global financial crisis; transfers from NHG’s own development pipeline; and integration of Genesis homes following Notting Hill’s 2018 merger with Genesis.

Folio’s schemes are located in London boroughs such as Croydon, Barnet, Ealing, Southwark, Greenwich, Harrow, Islington, Barking and Dagenham and Hammersmith and Fulham. The biggest scheme is Royal Wharf Estate in Newham, at 338 homes, followed by City Park West in Chelmsford with 317 homes.

Nine in 10 of the Folio homes are one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats, while 85% are in London and 98% are rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C or higher. The portfolio brought in revenue of £44.8m in the 2024-25 financial year.

Deloitte is believed to be running the sales process, which is codenamed ‘Project Vanguard’.

Kennedy Wilson is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, and is an established investor in the UK living sector. It has a suburban build-to-rent partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, launched in 2024, which currently owns 2,000 homes across 23 sites.

Adira is the newest organisation still in the running to buy the Folio business. It was founded in late 2025 by Boris Olujic, who previously led the real estate division of Wall Street giant Apollo, and Edoardo Nuzzo, a former senior principal at Apollo.

Adira is believed to have secured backing from European asset manager Hayfin to pursue the NHG portfolio.

NHG, Hayfin and Deloitte declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Hyde Group said: “We don’t comment on ongoing commercial matters.” 

Kennedy Wilson was approached for comment.

Patrick Franco, chief executive of NHG, revealed that he was reviewing the future of the PRS business in February 2025.

At the time, he told Inside Housing: “Folio is a bit like an endowment, or it could be positioned that way for NHG, and in that sense it is quite interesting because not all housing associations have £1bn endowments on their balance sheet.”

Folio was valued at £1bn when it was first put on sale, but took a £119m downward valuation in 2025. The original £1bn figure also included a separate portfolio which is being marketed by Savills on a scheme-by-scheme basis.