John Lewis is contemplating plans to construct 10,000 houses over the subsequent decade because the excessive road retailer group seems to revive its flagging fortunes by changing into a landlord.
The worker-owned group, which contains the upmarket John Lewis department shops and the Waitrose supermarkets, is known to have recognized sufficient extra house on the land it owns to construct no less than 7,000 houses.
The properties, which is able to vary from studio flats to four-bedroom homes, will probably be constructed on websites owned by the chain, above Waitrose supermarkets or on land subsequent to the corporate’s distribution centres.
Tenants of a John Lewis-owned residence can have the choice of renting the property absolutely furnished with the division retailer’s merchandise or utilizing their very own. A few of its housing developments are anticipated to return with a concierge service, and lots of are anticipated to incorporate a Waitrose comfort retailer as a part of the event.
The primary John Lewis houses are deliberate for south-east England however the partnership believes there are alternatives throughout the nation, given the extent of the nationwide housing disaster as property costs spiral upwards, pushing properties out of attain of first-time consumers. If profitable, it will be expanded to incorporate additional websites. John Lewis’s 80,000 workers, who’re companions within the enterprise, could possibly be provided discounted rents.
It’s not the chain’s first foray into the housing market. John Lewis additionally owns most of Leckford, a village in Hampshire, the place each residence with a inexperienced door is a partnership property. The retailer is making ready to lodge a handful of planning purposes early subsequent 12 months.
The transfer is a part of the shop’s plan to revive its fortunes. John Lewis has had a really tough time in recent times amid strain on the excessive road from its on-line rivals, and tumbled to its first annual loss in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The large buying modifications brought on by the disaster prompted it to shut 16 of its 50 shops and decide to spending £800m to overtake the remaining branches, in addition to enhance its web site and buying app.
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The fallout from the pandemic meant workers didn’t get a bonus for the primary time since 1953, with one additionally unlikely this 12 months. The shop group has been beneath assault in each market by which it operates. An enormous decline in its beforehand fabled customer support scores has not helped issues.
“Sometimes, a developer would possibly try to maximise returns after which transfer on to the subsequent one,” Chris Harris, the partnership’s property director, advised the Sunday Occasions. “We’re not attempting to try this. We’re aiming to cost a good lease and to remain for the lengthy haul.”
John Lewis’s plans kind a part of the burgeoning “construct to lease” sector, by which builders intention to supply tenants a better diploma of safety and extra visibility on any will increase to their lease.
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