UK: Lloyds Banking Group has launched Citra Living, marking its entrance into the private rental market.
Citra Living will be a standalone brand that will focus on buying and then renting properties that are newly built. Lloyds, which is one of the biggest mortgage lenders in the UK, has also indicated that, eventually, it plans to develop its portfolio through partnerships to build new properties from scratch.
The group, whose movement into the sector was originally announced in March, has lofty goals for its future. The brand hopes to purchase 400 properties by the end of this year and acquire double that amount in 2022.
Citra Living’s first purchase, the 45-apartment Fletton Quays in Peterborough, is expecting its first tenants to arrive in the next few weeks.
Andy Hutchinson, managing director of Citra Living, said: “We want to ensure everyone has access to stable and affordable homes. For an increasing number of people that means renting, but it shouldn’t mean quality is compromised. In order to meet the growing demands of the rental market, Citra Living will look to partner with developers to ensure a consistently high standard of properties is available to rent. Through Citra Living, we want to ensure more people have access to good-quality, affordable, new-build rental properties that they can consider their home.”
