Lloyds plans move into UK rental market

Lloyds Banking Group has announced plans to purchase 50,000 homes in the next decade in a bid to become one of the country’s biggest private landlords.

Lloyds, the UK's largest mortgage lender, is the most recent high street name to move into the property sector. John Lewis announced last month that it was assessing plans to build 10,000 rental homes over the next ten years.

Lloyds is the first major high street bank in the UK to move into the private rental market. The bank’s first development will be in Peterborough, where 45 flats will be put on the rental market over the next few weeks.

Lloyds said last month that its venture “will initially start small”. However, an internal job advertisement for its standalone ‘Citra Living’ brand has revealed that the bank is aiming to have 10,000 properties by the end of 2025, and 50,000 properties by 2030.

Achieving these targets would make Lloyds one of the largest landlords in the UK.

It is estimated that around 20% of UK households rent privately, and Lloyds anticipates that demand will grow over the next five years.

A spokesperson for Lloyds said: “As highlighted at launch, Citra Living will initially start small, with a focus on buying and renting good-quality newly built properties. This will be achieved by working alongside leading housebuilders to address the increasing demand for rental properties. The aim is to gradually provide incremental stock to the UK rental market over the coming years.”

“Everyone wants to become a landlord,” says accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg.

Blick Rothenberg’s Heather Powell, said that Lloyds’ move into the property market “makes a great headline”, but questioned “whether the new homes they are planning to buy meet the needs of the majority of those who are searching for affordable, not new, homes.

“If this level of investment in residential stock ‘built to rent’ continues, the letting market in the UK will undergo a seismic change – with small independent landlords being squeezed out to the periphery.

“These new landlords also need to take care to ensure they employ property management teams that really understand the needs of their tenants,” added Powell.