St Bride’s to back Sheffield BTR

Residential developer Sky-House Co has completed a forward-funding deal to deliver 66 build-to-rent homes at the former Stokes Tiles warehouse site in Sheffield city centre.

In extending its relationship with the St Bride’s White Rose Residential Partnership, Sky-House will deliver the Devonshire Quarter scheme, which includes two-bedroom duplexes and one-bedroom apartments.

Demolition began last summer on the Coda-designed project, with the development scheduled to complete by the end of June 2026.

The St Bride’s White Rose Residential Partnership – managed by St Bride’s Managers on behalf of South Yorkshire Pensions Authority – originally provided a funding facility in August 2021 to help grow Sky-House’s land pipeline. This facility has supported the company subsequently build new homes at key South Yorkshire developments including Waverley in Rotherham.

This funding also helped to secure the DQ site. Consented in mid-2023, Sky-House has completed challenging demolition and preparatory works prior to housebuilding getting underway. A £750,000 grant investment from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority has supported the site to be brought forward to market, including the demolition of a former commercial unit and the build of an acoustic wall for effective noise suppression to neighbouring residential developments.

All new homes will include air source heat recovery pumps and solar panels, whilst each home will be fully electric.

This is Sky-House’s fourth BTR deal in recent months. Hearthstone Investments purchased 11 homers in Waverley, following St Bride’s buying 22 homes at the same development.

The company has also recently announced a partnership with Placefirst, with an initial scheme of 48 homes at Copper Street in Sheffield city centre being forward-funded following the granting of planning approval this October.

This deal comes as Sky-House Co continues to make strong progress on its other key development sites. It has begun work on its third phase of housebuilding at Waverley – Harworth Group’s redevelopment of the Orgreave site – building out 96 homes.

The firm has also started work at Olive Lane, Harworth’s heart of the community scheme at Waverley, which will create a retail, leisure and community development centred around a pedestrianised high street.

Alongside this will be 50 Sky-House homes, taking its total contribution at Waverley to 234 homes – more than 5% of all new homes built at what is described as Yorkshire’s largest ever brownfield redevelopment.

David Cross, founder and director of Sky-House Co, said: “This is another excellent deal for Sky-House, showcasing that our design-led products provide excellent value to Build to Rent funds across the North of England.

“With DQ being a vacant site for a number of years, the last twelve months has also shown that we have the technical capability and know-how to bring forward homes on the most challenging of brownfield sites.

“With a strong pipeline of sites coming forward across the North of England over the next twelve months, we remain committed to growing the number of quality and energy-efficient new homes that we will deliver – providing a standard that buyers and renters across the North of England rightfully expect.”