Goodstone Living

Today we announce we have successfully established our first fund following the final close of Goodstone Living Partners 1. Targeting the build-to-rent residential sector and with a develop-to-hold strategy, the fund has over £550m of investment capacity, with equity commitments from a number of international and UK investors including the Northern LGPS. Almost 1,000 homes in Birmingham and Edinburgh are under construction as part of the initial portfolio, and the fund - subject to Article 8 - is focussed on decarbonisation and social value initiatives.   The establishment of the fund is in-line with our strategy of leveraging a sector specialist team to partner institutional capital with high quality living assets across a range of markets and risk profiles.   Iliya Blazic, Chief Executive Officer, Goodstone Living, said:   “The successful launch of our first managed fund and ability to attract high quality institutional capital partners speaks to the confidence global investors have in the underlying fundamentals of the build-to-rent sector, as well as Goodstone Living’s vision of creating a better way to rent.   We are excited to support our capital partners in creating next generation rental communities that integrate innovation, sustainability, wellbeing and customer service into every decision.”   Kevin Etchells, Greater Manchester Pension Fund on behalf of the Northern LGPS, said:   “We are delighted to announce Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s commitment to Goodstone Living Partners 1 alongside our Northern LGPS partners, West Yorkshire and Merseyside pension funds. This partnership already has two developments underway in Birmingham and Edinburgh and we are excited to see the portfolio develop further.   “The UK has an acute under supply of housing and Greater Manchester Pension Fund is proud to contribute to help solve this whilst also hopefully obtaining attractive risk adjusted income returns.”   James Bechely-Crundall, Senior Vice President, Macquarie Asset Management, said:   “Our investment in Goodstone Living on behalf of our managed funds is aligned to our strategy of establishing and incubating specialist real estate managers in sectors we believe are supported by significant structural tailwinds.   “We believe that a scalable market opportunity exists in the UK rental residential sector and that Goodstone Living is well positioned and has the capability to promote decarbonisation initiatives and create social value in the local communities in which it operates.   “We would like to congratulate the team on the closing of their first managed fund, which marks a major milestone in Goodstone Living’s short history. We look forward to continuing to work with the business and its capital partners to support their growth ambitions.”   Read about the fund and Goodstone's ambitions in our interview with Charlotte D’Souza of PERE or visit our website.

In case you missed it, watch highlights from the recent topping out ceremony at Dockside, our development of 373 build-to-rent homes in Leith, Edinburgh.

Read The Herald Scotland's write up of our topping out ceremony for Dockside, indicating national interest in our 373 home build-to-rent scheme in Leith, Edinburgh. Guests on the day included Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Business and Fair Work, who said: “Edinburgh is the heartbeat of the Scottish economy, with the availability of private and social housing for local communities being its bedrock. Increasing supply and bringing new stock to market across a range of tenures is critical to addressing the housing emergency and ensuring the city retains its reputation as one of the UK and Europe’s most desirable places to live and invest in.” Read the full piece below, which includes a video of construction progress from contractor McAleer & Rushe.

👫 Goodstone’s Annual Sustainability Report: Creating Social Value In Everything We Do 🏫 Our vision is to create social value in all communities in which we operate by prioritising local jobs, local business, and local people. For a full overview of our social value strategy, read our FY24 Sustainability Report here: https://lnkd.in/eGZHU5uU

Goodstone CEO Iliya Blazic on our latest Annual Sustainability Report.

A significant milestone for Goodstone Living as we celebrate topping out at our Edinburgh project. With contractor McAleer & Rushe, we have topped out at Dockside, our ‘next generation’ build-to-rent residential scheme in Leith, Edinburgh, delivering 373 new homes - including family and 25% affordable housing dwellings - as well as one acre of public realm space for the local community. The ceremony welcomed a range of stakeholders for one of Scotland's most sustainable developments, with guests including Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Business and Fair Work. As part of our social value strategy for the scheme, together with McAleer & Rushe we have so far created 53 new jobs through the project, of which approximately 42% were filled by local people, as well as six apprenticeships. An additional 16 community projects have been created, supporting 272 local residents, and 46 hours of skills training have been provided. Lee Hawkins, Construction Director at Goodstone Living, commented: “The topping out of Dockside is an important milestone for this Goodstone project and symbolises the continued realisation of our vision at both a corporate and portfolio level. “We are committed to creating long term value in the communities in which we operate, through the delivery of high-quality and sustainable housing, as well as a significant investment in social value initiatives for the local community. Our Dockside project is set to become one of Edinburgh’s most sustainable housing developments with a forecast reduction in carbon of over 30% for embodied carbon and over 50% for operational carbon vs. our established benchmarks.” Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Business and Fair Work, commented: “Edinburgh is the heartbeat of the Scottish economy, with the availability of private and social housing for local communities being its bedrock. Increasing supply and bringing new stock to market across a range of tenures is critical to addressing the housing emergency and ensuring the city retains its reputation as one of the UK and Europe’s most desirable places to live and invest in.”

🏘️ Goodstone’s Annual Sustainability Report: Our Sustainable Buildings Approach 🏗️ Delivering sustainable buildings is essential to realising the industry’s decarbonisation agenda. We have adopted a whole life carbon approach to assess each new asset and identify options to reduce emissions by design, transitioning to low carbon solutions, and improving the energy and carbon performance of our portfolio. Some of our key targets for controlled developments include: ❇️ Net zero operational carbon for our managed real estate portfolio by 2030 ❇️50% reduction in as-designed operational carbon emissions vs. UK building regulation benchmark Part L (2021) ❇️30% reduction in embodied carbon vs RIBA 2025 benchmark ❇️10% improvement of existing biodiversity site conditions ❇️Less than 105 litres of water per adult during operations, including use of greywater harvesting Our progress, targets and next steps can be read in more detail here: https://lnkd.in/eGZHU5uU

🌳 Goodstone’s Annual Sustainability Report: Carbon Emissions and Net Zero Pathway Approach 🌳 We recognise our responsibility to create a more sustainable environment and remain dedicated to promoting decarbonisation initiatives across the whole building lifecycle of our managed real estate portfolio, as well as our corporate business. We have a clear framework and deliverable methods in place to achieve net zero across business activities as well as operational emissions in the managed real estate portfolio by 2030. Embodied carbon for the managed real estate portfolio will also be significantly reduced. Excellent progress has been made this year. Goodstone is currently outperforming across its managed real estate portfolio – Smith’s Garden, Birmingham, and Dockside, Edinburgh - with a 37% reduction in embodied carbon vs the market benchmark. We are also targeting a +50% reduction in operational carbon emissions vs UK building regulation benchmark Part L; Smith’s Garden and Dockside are forecast to register 63% and 58% improvements, respectively. For a detailed overview of our net zero carbon approach, including the progress we have made and the next steps we will implement to achieve our objectives, read our FY24 Sustainability Report here: https://lnkd.in/eGZHU5uU

Read our Annual Sustainability Report in which we outline our pathway to becoming a net zero business and reinforce our commitment to creating lasting and positive socio-economic outcomes for our residents and local communities, while creating value for our capital partners. Our long-term focus allows us to invest significantly in the local communities in which we operate to create healthy, sustainable homes. The report summarises our approach to promoting decarbonisation initiatives and creating positive social value during the delivery and operation of our rental communities, as well as our commitment as a responsible company through ethical business practices. With approximately 1,000 next generation build-to-rent homes under construction (as at 31 March 2024), we are striving to deliver on our sustainability targets and will continue to grow and innovate with our stakeholders to create a better way to rent. During the 2024 financial year, we created 181 new jobs, delivered £2.4 million of social value initiatives, and are on track to reduce embodied carbon by 37% vs the baseline1 across our portfolio. Iliya Blazic, Chief Executive Officer of Goodstone Living, commented: “The purpose that drives our business is to deliver positive environmental and social outcomes in the communities in which we operate. Our latest sustainability report highlights the framework we are creating to achieve this for our portfolio, enabling us to bring about change and generate long term value and enhanced liquidity for our capital partners.” The full report, which summarises our sustainability objectives, progress to date, and next steps for the 2025 financial year, can be found below.

Knight Frank's latest UK BTR Market Update reports nearly £640 million invested across 14 deals in Q3 2024, which brings the total invested for the year £3.2 billion – a 20% increase on last year’s record. BTR development is also reaching record-breaking levels as more than 18,000 homes have completed this year so far. As a result, the completed BTR supply has reached 122,380 homes across the UK. And with an additional 58,951 under construction and 101,729 granted planning permission, the total sector size now stands at 282,918 homes. Goodstone will contribute nearly 1,000 next-generation Build to Rent (BTR) homes to the sector from its two active development sites located in Digbeth, Birmingham’s creative district, and Leith, Edinburgh. To read the report, click here: https://lnkd.in/ecvqfR4F