RESIDENTIAL property giant Grainger is set to reap rewards as more people move into rented accommodation.

Britain’s biggest residential landlord says the growing popularity of rented property is likely to be a permanent structural change in the UK housing market, especially in London as younger people struggle to get on to the housing ladder.

The Newcastle-based business, which receives money from sales of residential properties, rents, fees and income from managed or co-invested businesses, said its revenues rose to £296.2m from £244.5m in the year to the end of September.

Its annual figures published yesterday showed the business moved back into the black with a pre-tax profit of £26.1m, compared with a loss of £20.8m last year.

The group owns residential property worth £2.4bn – 82% of it in the UK and the rest in Germany – which generated £86m in rents and asset sales of £223m during the year.

Chief executive Andrew Cunningham said: “By value, around two-thirds of our property is in London and the South East. The performance of the London market has been better than other parts of the country.

“But it is too simplistic to say ‘London good, the rest of the country bad’.