The single family housing build to rent (SFH BTR) sector “outperformed the market norm” in 2023, according to Paul Staley, managing director of Wise Living.

He said: “Despite the obvious difficulties facing the residential housing market in 2023, it has been enlightening to see just how well SFH BTR has stood up to the challenge and, from our experience, outperformed many sectors.

“The properties we manage have provided returns that exceeded our investors’ expectations. We’ve experienced double digit rental growth, rising to 10.1%. Occupancy rates remained stable at 98.69%, while our bad debt fell to less than 0.1%.”

According to a recent report by Savills, build to rent is expected to play an increasingly important role in the housing market going forward.

Savills’ 2023 Q3 figures showed an 11% rise year on year of completed BTR homes, with 112,511 more homes in the pipeline. Within this, SFH is proving itself to be a particular area of growth, with 28,000 of these pipeline homes coming from the sector.

“Overall, I remain positive and excited for the prospects of SFH BTR and the wider residential sector,” said Staley. 

He added: “It’s always wise to head into any new year with caution, especially amid a landscape of growing geopolitical tensions and closer to home, an upcoming UK general election but we’re primed and ready to tackle any challenges that 2024 may throw and are confident we’ll have another successful year.”