Birmingham developers are stepping up plans for more city centre build-to-rent beds, taking advantage of Birmingham City Council's 37,900 unit housing gap.

The latest proposal will see a 47-storey build-to-rent tower at Broad Street, which will cement the street's reputation as Birmingham's new residential hot spot.

Regal Property has applied for permission to build at 90-97 Broad Street. The 526-apartment scheme will include 235 one-bed and 291 two-bed apartments, planning documents showed. Work on site could be completed by 2027.

The immediate neighbourhood already includes Regal's Bank towers, of 22 and 33 storeys, and the 36-storey Square, now under construction. Nearby, Moda's Mercian is 42 storeys.

The city council is in breach of its requirements to meet housing need, which opens the door to ambitious developer plans which might not otherwise meet with success.

The current Birmingham Development Plan became five years old on 10 January 2022, and is now considered out of date. That means the city council is now unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites. The gap in provision would mean 37,900 more homes to reach Birmingham’s 'Objectively Assessed Housing Need' of 89,000 units.

Student housing developers have also been taking advantage of the council's breach of planning rules.

CC Crown Birmingham has applied for 10 extra storeys on a two-block scheme at Lancaster Street, increasing the number of student bed spaces by 258, taking the total up from 567 to 814. The developers say that, for the same reason as residential developers, the council has breached planning targets — this time by 2,629 student bed spaces, planning documents revealed.