Subsidiary of Rent to Buy provider enters administration

Following their appointment, the joint administrators have taken control of the business and said they are working with key stakeholders to ensure minimal disruption.

Mr Tucker, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “We would like to reassure tenants and the underlying occupants of properties connected to RPA1 that it is business as usual.

“Occupants do not need to take any new action as a result of our appointment, and all existing arrangements remain in place.

“We are committed to ensuring continuity and minimising disruption throughout the process.”

Rentplus was set up by a group of investors in 2012 and provides affordable Rent to Buy homes.

Under the model, homes are leased to housing associations, which provide tenants with renewable leases with rent set at 80% of market rents.

At the end of a tenancy period, tenants are given the option of buying their home, supported by a gifted deposit of 10% of the property’s value.

In 2021, Inside Housing reported that officials at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had expressed reluctance to fund schemes involving Rentplus’ model, according to papers from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

The report came after the government turned off the tap on £45m in funding for the combined authority’s affordable housing programme amid concerns over progress and value for money.

At the time, officials were not prepared to recommend five pipeline schemes, citing concerns that they “do not like the provider’s model” on which four of the schemes were based.

In response, Rentplus said that it was “consistently commended by the last three housing ministers”.

Rentplus Homes Limited was later registered with the Regulator of Social Housing as a for-profit registered provider in July 2024.

In January this year, Rentplus chief executive Steve Collins told MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee that Rentplus had seen more opportunities as registered providers pulled back from buying Section 106 homes.

Asked whether the lack of take-up of Section 106 properties by registered providers had given Rentplus more market share, Mr Collins said: “Yes, a significantly larger proportion of opportunities have arisen during 2025 and now into 2026.”

He also told MPs that Rentplus was “currently going through a fundraising exercise”. Mr Collins said at the same evidence session that Rentplus homes had “no grant or subsidy” other than acquisition through Section 106.

Lewis Cocking, the Conservative MP for Broxbourne, responded: “Both those statements cannot be true.”

The administration of RPA1 does not apply to Rentplus UK.