UK: Lloyds Banking Group is planning to become a major private landlord, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The initiative, known internally as Project Generation, will involve buying and letting new and existing housing stock across the UK, and aims to have its first tenants by the end of this year.
Lloyds also owns the Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows brands. According to the FT it hopes to take advantage of its low funding costs, name recognition and knowledge of the housing market to become a major player in the sector, which is fragmented and dominated by small businesses and retail investors.
Lloyds is the UK’s largest mortgage lender and its commercial banking business has existing relationships with almost all the UK’s largest housebuilders. It has also directly invested in several housing projects with smaller developers in recent years through a partnership with Homes England.
The bank said: “As we stated in our full-year results and our strategic review last week, we are committed to broadening access to home ownership and exploring opportunities to increase our support to the UK rental sector.”
