ECE Living

BUILD-TO-RENT: ATTRACTIVE AND CONTEMPORARY

In times when affordable housing is scarce and progress on building new homes sluggish, there’s a need for efficient, bespoke housing solutions with a focus on energy efficiency and compact design. That’s why alongside newbuild projects, another of ECE’s investment priorities is contemporary, tenant-centric residential properties. As a strategic partner for residential investments by national and international institutional investors, ECE Living takes a “build-to-rent” approach that actively addresses tenants’ needs: compact, efficiently designed apartments with shared facilities like coworking spaces, residents’ lounges, and gyms.

This kind of housing is primarily aimed at young, urban professionals with flexible lifestyles and working patterns. Accordingly, ECE Living’s Better Living Europe Fund (launched in 2022) is investing in new build-to-rent residential properties in high-growth metropolitan regions, based on the results of the ECE Smart Cities model. Residential projects have already been acquired in Manchester, Leeds, and Copenhagen. //

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APARTMENTS IN RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS IN BIRMINGHAM, MANCHESTER, LEEDS, AND COPENHAGEN CURRENTLY MANAGED

The Chapel Wharf apartment complex in Manchester, completed in 2020, includes modern, spacious communal areas.

ESG-Spotlight

In light of the EU’s climate targets and the increasingly stringent requirements they impose on real estate, ESG criteria are of key importance to ECE Living – both when purchasing build-to rent residential properties and in the course of ongoing asset management. ECE Living, like the ECE Group as a whole, uses recognized certification systems to clearly convey its properties’ sustainability qualities – information that is relevant to all stakeholders, from tenants to investors to banks. For instance, the apartment complexes in Leeds, Manchester, and Copenhagen were recently certified in line with the BREEAM standard.

3 QUESTION FOR:

Vicky Robinson

City Operations Manager für das Objekt in Manchester

As City Operations Manager at Dandara Living, an ECE partner, Vicky Robinson is responsible for operations at the Chapel Wharf complex in Manchester, which has 995 mostly fully furnished apartments and numerous amenities, including a gym, coworking and event spaces, and parcel lockers.

What does your typical working day look like?

Working at a build-to-rent complex is a 24/7 job. Since we’re on duty round the clock, close communication with the entire team is essential so we can stay in the loop about what’s going on. After the morning check-in, I usually spend a big chunk of my day doing a mix of meetings and admin. My favorite part of the job is dealing with our 1,500 or so tenants, who make every day unique. From birthday parties to other get-togethers, there’s always something going on in our communal areas.

What makes Chapel Wharf in Manchester special?

The diverse mix of tenants. Our apartments are fully rented, and you meet all sorts of people. There are young professionals from various cultures, who are particularly attracted by the prime, central location. But our complex is also home to families. Besides the location, the fact that all the apartments have a large balcony, which is a rarity in Manchester, makes them very attractive!

Have there been any especially memorable moments?

There have been quite a few! One recent favorite was when a tenant who has been with us for just under three years spoke to me at the residents’ breakfast club about the upcoming renewal of his tenancy agreement. He said he never intended to move again and that we had him “for life.” There couldn’t be a better validation of my work and our complex.