Living the brand: How Quintain’s ambitious Build to Rent proposition at Wembley Park gleaned insights from Wates

Living the brand: How Quintain’s ambitious Build to Rent proposition at Wembley Park gleaned insights from Wates

27 Jan 2020

In April 2019 one of Quintain’s four key contractors, Wates Construction, launched a ‘Living the Brand’ initiative at Wembley Park. As part of this Wates appointed an employee to live in one of their recently completed buildings at Wembley Park for six months. The project afforded Wates first-hand insight into the success of its Built to Rent project, allowing the company to ensure it delivers on its brief to build a product fit for purpose for the end consumer. In tune with Quintain’s commitment to create neighbourhoods and homes where people love to live, the project yielded insights that both developer and contractor will put into practice for future developments at Wembley Park and beyond.

Richard Shroll, MD of London Construction at Wates, explained: “Customers are right to expect more from the industry for their new-build developments and we’re taking extra steps to ensure we’re building high-quality homes that deliver ultimate value. It’s vital that we respond to in-depth insight that we can only get from direct experience.”

Quintain will have 5,000 rental homes at Wembley Park (out of 8,500 total apartments in the Masterplan design) by 2027, making it the largest single site of Build to Rent (BTR) in the UK. All BTR properties at the Wembley Park site are let and managed by Quintain Living, Quintain’s award-winning rental management platform, with an all-inclusive offering.

Across all of Quintain’s rental apartments, benefits come as standard, including:

• Utility bills and superfast broadband included in rent
• A dedicated residents team and 24-hour concierge
• Maximum security of a long-term lease and professional landlord
• Hotel-inspired customer service and pet friendly homes
• Excellent transport links within walking distance
• Perks, discounts and giveaways for residents
• Simple negotiation, reducing costs and admin time

Quintain’s BTR stock at Wembley Park offers a wide range of accommodation, from family friendly developments with acres of podium garden space to apartments designed for those who want to be in the heart of the action. Flexible three-year leases are offered as standard. The consistency and quality of the rental product, coupled with an efficient, cost effective leasing process, makes Quintain’s BTR proposition at Wembley Park particularly attractive to employers offering apartments for corporate accommodation. Current clients include Linklaters, McAleer & Rushe and Deloitte who either offer homes to employees as a corporate let or negotiate rental agreements on behalf of their employees, as a perk.

The Living the Brand initiative saw one of Wates’ employees, Kelly Howard, move into Quintain’s development for a six-month period, experiencing life as a Wembley Park resident. Working with Wates to gain insight into the resident experience was just one of the many ways that Quintain ensure they are delivering homes where people love to live, using feedback to make improvements throughout the development process.

Ms Howard says: “Through my work with Wates, I was able to oversee the whole process from construction to completion and now beyond to the life of a resident. This gave me unique insight into the experience from an end-customer’s point of view. Every month I fed back on the key learnings for both us and Quintain, which we could use to implement changes to aspects of design, materials or layout of future buildings currently under construction or in the design stages.

“The apartments are all inclusive of bills, electricity, water and Wi-Fi are all already installed when I moved in. You can also book an induction where the concierge walks you through everything you might need to know about the apartment, shared social spaces and the wider Wembley Park area.”

Quintain has partnered with John Lewis & Partners and Samsung to provide furniture and appliances for their apartments, ensuring each home across the development benefits from the same level of quality.

Ms Howard says: “The apartment itself was gorgeous, it had all the mod cons and I had no issues with any of the appliances. However, I did notice a couple of things to bear in mind for design: for example, I’d have liked a plug socket by the mirror in the bedroom so I could plug a hair dryer in.

“It was these small details that you would probably never notice unless you had lived there yourself, but through this experience of getting closer to our end-customers we can work with Quintain to bring these learnings into future projects.”

Ms Howard’s insights from her time living at Wembley Park have resulted in amendments to the proposed electrical fittings for further buildings under construction. Quintain frequently utilises real time feedback such as this to instruct the design and delivery of future developments. A prime example has been the addition of more lifts per core and daylight in the communal corridors of Wates plot E01/02.

Quintain are in a unique position as developers as they own and manage the 85-acre Wembley Park estate, allowing the company to provide a safe neighbourhood with a curated retail, events and cultural offering, ensuring Wembley Park is a 365-day destination.

Ms Howard said: “Renters are looking for that real sense of community and Wembley Park certainly has that. It was amazing to be living in one of the best-known areas of London, near the national stadium, but to really feel part of a local community. It is pretty rare for London.”

Richard Shroll adds: “Overall, the ‘Live the Brand’ programme has been a hugely valuable learning experience for us and we already have plans to roll it out with some of our other partners.

“We’re taking on board learnings to implement changes across some of our other sites, based on the feedback from this initiative, all designed to improve functionality and create a better finish, while delivering great value for customers.

“Living the Brand is all about getting to know the customer better – and how we can build better homes that really work for them. Going forward, we believe the scheme will allow us to work more effectively with developers, providing an excellent consultancy service that clients really value.”

Quintain has awarded a total of £386.5m to Wates at Wembley Park, among a total of £1.7bn construction contracts to date across Wembley Park, and the number of apartments delivered by Wates at the 85-acre site is over 1,300. The contractor is currently working on twin plots E01/02, the largest ever awarded to Wates on a single site, which will deliver 633 homes, a nursery, private landscaped gardens, a Multi-Use Games Area and a gym. Of the 633 residential homes delivered at E01/02, 347 will form part of Quintain’s Build to Rent offering.


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