This is one of what may be a number of codas to a story featured a couple of weeks ago. Home REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) was set up to invest in social housing, in our great world of privatised everything. They borrowed to buy and were hit by interest rate rises, just like many private buy-to-letters. The nature of their tenants, however, means that those tenants are suffering more than most from, in particular I’d guess, 19% food-price inflation, and so 87% aren’t paying their rents. They company has apparently ‘developed a number of initiatives’ to improve rent collection; I wonder what those could be? Although this will doubtless hit the investment managers’ bonuses, it will be those turfed out when the forced sales come around who suffer most. And ultimately the cost will bounce back to the government, who should never have tried to get shot of it in the first place.
“John Lewis foray into BTR could result in losses of £57m”
I did predict a while ago that Waitrose Homes rather than Waitrose Home Deliveries could be the future. John Lewis were probably the most benign big business to decide to go into the housing rental market, a move which could swing things away from the unpredictability of the mass of private landlords who dominate the sector.
