Lloyds Banking Group PLC aims to become one of the UK’s biggest landlords over the coming decade under its new Citra Living brand.
The FTSE 100 lender has confirmed its plans to buy 10,000 properties by 2025 and expand this to 50,000 homes by 2030, operating them as a private landlord as it looks to broaden its revenue streams amid the low interest-rate environment.
Already the biggest mortgage lender in the UK with one in four home loans, the bank said its aim will be to acquire roughly 400 by the end of this year and then double this target in 2022.
Lloyds put out an internal job advert setting a “strategic challenge” of reaching 10,000 properties by the end of 2025, the Finanical Times reported earlier, with a 50,000 target by 2030.
A 50,000-home portfolio would be worth around £4bn and generate annual profits of around £300mln, based on calculations using current market prices and rental rates.
Citra Living may consider “M&A (mergers and acquisitions) opportunities and/or strategic alliances” to help it reach the targets, the job advert said.
Lloyds has been looking to broaden its revenue streams outside pure banking, including a financial planning joint venture set up with Schroders (LSE:SDR) in 2018 and last month's £390mln acquisition of Embark Group to double down on this push into investment and retirement.
A Lloyds spokeswoman said: “Citra Living will initially start small, with a focus on buying and renting good-quality, newly-built properties. This will be achieved by working alongside leading housebuilders to address the increasing demand for rental properties.
“The aim is to gradually provide incremental stock to the UK rental market over the coming years.”