Work begins to turn former Strathclyde Police HQ site in Glasgow into hundreds of homes for rent

Two major investors have now agreed to fund a property project that will provide more than 400 homes on the site of the former Strathclyde Police HQ in Glasgow.

The Holland Park scheme will see the former police headquarters on Pitt Street Glasgow replaced by four apartment blocks providing 433 homes for rent in total.

Apache Capital Partners and investment management firm Harrison Street are to fund the landmark build-to-rent development.

The Holland Park scheme will see the former police headquarters on Pitt Street replaced by four apartment blocks providing 433 homes for rent in total. Demolition works have completed on-site, with practical completion due late 2023.

The homes will be delivered and managed over a long-term period by Moda Living.

The investment is the fifth project in the build-to-rent joint venture (JV) between Apache Capital and Harrison Street. Apache, backed by UK insurer NFU Mutual, and Harrison Street launched the JV to deliver high quality build-to-rent developments in key cities across the UK.

In addition to Holland Park in Glasgow, current Moda “neighbourhoods” being funded by the venture include Springside in Edinburgh, The Lexington in Liverpool, The Mercian in Birmingham and New York Square in Leeds, representing a total of more than 2,300 homes.

As well as creating new homes, Holland Park will provide 15,000 square feet of internal amenities, including communal lounges and health and wellbeing zones.

A further 31,000 sq ft of outdoor amenity space will be provided, with the four apartment buildings that form Holland Park to be set around a courtyard open to the wider public during the day.

Moda residents will also have access to landscaped terraces overlooking the Glasgow skyline, while mixed commercial and leisure space will be provided on the ground floor, including cafes, bars, restaurants and co-working facilities.

John Dunkerley, chief executive and co-founder of Apache Capital Partners, said: “Alternative residential sectors such as build-to-rent were already seeing increased interest from institutional investors prior to the pandemic thanks to compelling market fundamentals and the promise of liability matching income streams with defensive, counter-cyclical qualities.

“Covid-19 has further demonstrated the resilience of build-to-rent as an asset class, while we continue to outperform expectations at Angel Gardens in Manchester, our flagship UK build-to-rent development with Moda Living.

“Glasgow marks our fifth investment in the platform with Harrison Street and Moda Living and we look forward to seeing the scheme progress alongside our other projects.”

Paul Bashir, chief executive of Harrison Street’s European business, said: “Glasgow is a key commercial centre within the UK, with a strong local economy that includes thriving financial services, technology and life sciences sectors.

“The city is home to a world-class university, renowned culture and attractive leisure scenes, however there is a significant under-supply of high-quality rental housing, with a lack of highly amenitised purpose-built private rented accommodation.

“We are pleased to further strengthen our partnership with Apache Capital, who, together with Moda Living, have emerged as market leaders within UK private rented accommodation and are successfully pioneering a new model of high amenity, high service build-to-rent that will no doubt prove attractive to the UK’s growing number of private renters.”

Apache Capital and Moda Living purchased the Holland Park site in October 2016.

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