CBRE has called on the Government to follow the UK’s Build To Rent (BTR) model, where some £27.7bn (€33bn) of equity is currently targeting the sector across the water.
The property sector consultants said there is an opportunity to attract significant capital from European and US institutional investors and to speed up efforts to resolve the housing crisis.
Responding to the findings of CBRE’s recently-introduced Build to Rent Equity Barometer, the director of development at CBRE Ireland, Tim McMahon, believes that some of the capital earmarked for the UK will find its way here given the scarcity of housing in the Irish market.
With the main constraint for investors in the UK continuing to be a lack of available stock and the ratio of deployable equity to marketed stock at 14:1, CBRE said that a number of those investors are already looking for opportunities in the Irish market.
“We are urging the Government to facilitate the delivery of the Build to Rent (BTR) concept, which is common in other jurisdictions and which has the ability to deliver scale quickly,” McMahon said.
“Build to Rent is set to become increasingly popular in the Irish market with a significant weight of capital looking to invest in this sector and facilitate much-needed delivery.”
Referring to the scale of the BTR sector internationally, McMahon noted that in the case of the US alone, it amounted to a $250bn debt and equity market in 2016.
McMahon said while London had traditionally been the focus of investors’ attention, the UK’s regional cities were now coming to the fore as American funds begin to explore the market and demonstrate their willingness to move higher up the risk curve in regional cities.
In view of this, CBRE believes it is logical to expect investors to consider opportunities in Ireland where supply shortages are particularly acute.
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