Living Sector

The living sector is an established part of real estate investment. Demand is shaped by enduring themes: housing need, demographic change, constrained supply, operational quality and the role of residential assets in long-term income strategies.

Boodle Hatfield advises on living sector assets from acquisition and funding through to development, operation and disposal. Our work spans the main residential investment markets, including multifamily, single-family rental, student accommodation, co-living, later living, affordable housing and mixed-tenure development. It sits between land, capital, regulation and operations, and requires legal advice that reflects both the transaction and the asset’s intended use and ownership profile.

Our focus is where development, private capital and long-term ownership meet. That perspective is particularly relevant where investors are assessing site risk, funding structures, construction delivery, operational arrangements and exit.

Our living sector expertise

Our work covers the core legal and commercial points in the lifecycle of a residential investment asset:

• Land strategy, site assembly, acquisitions, options and promotion agreements
• Joint ventures, development management, forward funding, forward purchase and investment structures
• Viability, affordable housing, infrastructure, planning obligations and specialist planning input where required
• Construction documentation, consultant appointments, collateral warranties and building safety compliance
• Lettings, management arrangements, resident documentation, service delivery and operational compliance
• Asset management, refinancing, stabilised investment sales, portfolio transactions and exit strategy

Why Boodle Hatfield?

Boodle Hatfield has advised on real estate for more than 300 years. Its living sector work draws on that development heritage and on established relationships with private capital, landed estates and family offices.

We act where ownership, control, funding and exit need to be looked at together. The advice is partner-led, commercially framed and focused on the legal decisions that can affect value over the life of the asset. We have a range of experience including:

• Advising a client joint venture on the financing of circa 180 build-to-rent properties across London and the South West.
• Advising a single family office on a £53 million acquisition and development facility for a high-end residential project in Covent Garden, London.
• Advising a developer consortium on a complex conditional land sale agreement to acquire a 30 acre site for a mixed use development, including commercial, student accommodation and residential units, and a biomass power station.
• Acting for a private family office on the promotion of a new town scheme in East Anglia for circa 5000 houses, including negotiating complex option agreements over neighbouring land to permit future infrastructure and A road junction arrangements.
• Advising on a joint venture agreement for investing circa £300m in student housing accommodation opportunities.
•  Advising major urban estates on all aspects of their development and placemaking activities, including the construction documentation for mixed use developments and build-to-rent schemes, putting in place building contracts, consultant appointments and other related security and collateral agreements.
•  Advising an investment management company on a £14 million development financing in relation to the clearance and construction of a co-living scheme at a London listed building.

Structural considerations

In living sector projects, value is influenced by real estate fundamentals, regulation, funding requirements and operational performance. Issues that commonly affect pricing, programme, income and exit include:

• Building safety, regulatory approvals and occupation risk
• Viability, infrastructure, affordable housing and consenting strategy
• Residential regulation, occupational arrangements and operational compliance
• Energy performance, sustainability requirements and investor reporting
• Funding, asset management, refinancing and disposal risk

We translate these issues into risk allocation, documentation and execution strategy that support fundability, asset performance and exit.