ARL Milton Keynes Study Tour: In Review

“Four properties, eight apartments, one yummy lunch and 20,000 steps…. You know it’s been an ARL study tour day!”

Georgie Drewery, Senior Account Executive at Yardi, was one of our superb team of expert presenters at the inaugural ARL Milton Keynes Study Tour on 19th September 2024. Previous tours have taken us as far afield as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, London, Birmingham and even San Diego. This time, we shone a spotlight on Milton Keynes, exploring the city’s impressive Build to Rent (BTR) and Single Family Rental (SFR) offering.

Local residents Graham Sibley, ARL’s Operations and Marketing Director, and Stephanie Smith, ARL’s EDI Committee Chair and Director – Operations and Asset Management at APO, hosted the event, which Stephanie hailed as, “a great day with informative presentations and tours.”

Keen to focus on the operational realities of BTR in Milton Keynes, the study tour took in four superb developments in the city: Park Square, Enigma Square, The Almere and Arbour.

Bidwells’ Head of Operational Living Research, Ed Howe, set the scene, introducing participants to the city. Milton Keynes is home to 1,239 operational BTR units already, with another 1,636 in the pipeline, as the city seeks to provide its ever-growing population with market-leading BTR products.

Mya Bridgeman (Account Executive at Rightmove) and Zora Vuković (Rightmove’s Key Account Manager), then provided an overview of the HomeViews platform and its local context, showing that Milton Keynes residents are delighting in the city’s good transport links and its vibrant restaurant, café, hotel and leisure quarter, known as The Hub.

In BTR building terms, the day kicked off at Park Square from Native Residential/Corebridge Financial, which is home to spacious, pet-friendly apartments and stand-out facilities, including co-working spaces, resident lounges, a gym, a games room and expansive outdoor spaces. Just a short walk from Milton Keynes’ shops and entertainment venues, the building is showcasing how new communities can blend modern living with convenience and leisure.

Next, we took in The Almere, from Native Residential/Invesco. With a cosy resident lounge, impressive co-working spaces, a communal kitchen and dining space, a superb roof terrace (those views!) and a dynamic, community-led space, the building highlights the social benefits of the BTR experience. It’s not something that those of us concentrating on designing and building BTR homes always get to see, as Georgie Drewery of Yardi – the sponsor of the ARL Milton Keynes Study Tour – reminds us:

“These study tours I believe are so important. As suppliers we concentrate on our product and how we can add value and save costs, but not always do we get to go onsite and see building teams in action, moving residents in, organising events.”

Lunch in the sun was held at Arbour, where the team had got through practical completion the previous evening, making it the newest BTR development in the UK. Sam Winnard and Sam Jones of Pension Insurance Corporation plc and Savills hosted the visit, with lunch followed by an insightful presentation from Yardi’s Georgie Drewery and Packaged Living’s Sophie Gunn. They discussed exciting new single family rental developments in Milton Keynes and the appeal of zero energy bills, giving study tour participants plenty of food for thought.

Another highlight was the excellent presentation from Ian Revell of the Milton Keynes Community Foundation, which performs a crucial role of aligning social impact investment with local community needs. This includes investment in communities where BTR is planned (and operational), with a superb example of endowment funds providing grant funding in perpetuity to support local causes.

Mark Gray, Director at Elevation Property Group, was one of many to be delighted with Milton Keynes’ latest BTR offering, commenting:

“An impressive scheme that adds to the evolving skyline of Central Milton Keynes. I am sure young professionals moving to the city, or already residing here will be keen align their aspirations with a community such as this.”

The final stop of the day was at Enigma Square by Grainger. With the building having been open and operating smoothly for two years, it provided an excellent opportunity for hosts Anish Thobani and Jodie Gunn to share insights into how Enigma Square’s customer service team is giving residents an exceptional rental living experience.

“The ARL Study Tours deliver outstanding value to all those attending and the Milton Keynes Tour was no exception, with participants gaining privileged insights into the city’s booming BTR sector and a first glimpse at what’s in the pipeline in terms of its expanding SFR provision. With successful networking and an excellent lunch included, this was a hugely positive day and reminder of why such events are so important.”

Brendan Geraghty, CEO, ARL

For more information on upcoming ARL Study Tours, click here.