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Northern Ireland housing association launches PRS company
A housing association in Northern Ireland has launched the sector’s first private rented sector (PRS) vehicle.
Choice Housing, which owns around 11,000 homes across the region, has launched Maple and May as a wholly owned company with £12m investment.
Maple and May has plans to develop a portfolio of more than 500 new homes in the next five years.
The majority of these will be let at market rate private rents, while some will be sold through shared ownership. It has already acquired 70 units.
Profits raised by Maple and May will be invested back into Choice’s core social housing business.
It will be split into two subsidiaries. One will purchase open-market homes to let out in the PRS and the other will enter into joint ventures with developers to deliver homes for shared ownership.
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Choice will be the majority funder for Maple and May’s early projects, but the firm will seek private finance as it looks to meet its five-year target.
Maple and May will not compete for sites in areas of high social housing need.
“There is a chronic shortage of housing over all tenures in Northern Ireland so we feel that Maple and May has a real part to play,” said Michael McDonnell, chief executive of Choice.
“The primary driver is housing supply but we also feel we can make a return on those investments and that will enable Choice to do more of what it wants to do, which is provide social housing.”
There are currently only a handful of large PRS landlords operating in Northern Ireland.
Jon Anderson, director at Maple and May, said: “Northern Ireland has a housing deficit, but there are hundreds of sites awaiting development across the province.
“We’re working with developers and landowners to unlock as many of these sites as possible and transform vacant land into homes.
“Our focus is on giving more people the opportunity to access homes that are right for them, whether that is to rent or buy.”
