John Lewis announces first locations for rental homes

The John Lewis Partnership has revealed the first three locations where it proposes to build new rental homes as part of its long-term plan for 40 percent of profits to come from outside of retail by 2030.

The three proposed sites include buildings over Waitrose shops in Bromley and West Ealing in Greater London, as well as replacing a vacant John Lewis warehouse in Mill Lane, Reading.

In a press release, John Lewis revealed that detailed designs of the property redevelopments will be shown to residents later in the year. The Reading site will become open to public consultation by the end of 2022, and it plans to submit planning applications for Bromley and West Ealing in 2023.

The three locations are the first sites to be announced by the retail group after it confirmed it would be targeting to deliver 10,000 homes in the next ten years. 5,000 of these will come from schemes on the partnership's own property portfolio.

The homes would be built for different sized households and available for short and long-term tenure. They will also be completely furnished by John Lewis and be designed with a sense of community with shared spaces and facilities such as roof gardens and fitness studios.

Nina Bhatia, executive director for strategy and commercial development at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Everything people love about our brand - quality, trust and service - we want to bring to the experience of renting a home with us. Our role as developer and operator, as well as an already established local business and employer, signals our ambition to bring long-term value to each of these communities. Helping to create homes has always been at the heart of what we do and we now have a unique opportunity to use our expertise and skills in new ways to deliver much-needed new housing.”