Vermont targets PRS market

Vermont has appointed Chris Gallagher as managing director as part of a move to expand its PRS operations.

Chris Gallagher joined Vermont in 2015 and has since overseen the delivery of some of the £200m X1 Media City residential development in Salford and Plaza 1821, Peel and Regenda’s £21m residential development at Liverpool Waters.

He started his career at Wimpey Construction and spent over a decade at HBG (now BAM Construct UK) and then GB Complete Building Solutions before joining Vermont. 

Chris Gallagher joins a board that is chaired by Mark Connor as CEO and includes finance director Mike Huston, commercial director Mark Baird, and construction director Mark Colton.

Chief executive Mark Connor said: “To date our growth has been reliant on the sales market, where the funding model has relied heavily on sales to UK or foreign investors. This market is cyclical and we identified as far back as 2015, when Chris joined the business, that the challenge would be ensuring growth beyond the current sales cycle.

“Vermont’s broad range of skills from inception to completion, coupled with our track record of delivery of large multi-phased residential projects is extremely attractive to institutional investors, particularly those interested in the PRS sector, and we see plenty of scope to expand and grow the business in this growing sector.”

Managing director Chris Gallagher added: “My new role will bring clarity for our team and our customers as we continue to deliver major projects and grow the business. Vermont does have a fairly unique approach and a developer-contractor business model. We have negotiated pipeline of work as opposed to just being a traditional contracting business. Our clients can draw on our extensive experience in the sector.”

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