The projects developed under the OYO (Own Your Own) brand by Ravenbourne are a series of small business unit estates specifically aimed at companies looking to occupy and own their own high quality business accommodation.
The option of leasing units before buying is also available as businesses can rent an OYO Business Unit on a short-term lease and have the option to purchase their unit at any time during the lease. Often occupiers initially move in as tenants but later buy the freehold of their unit either when their lease expires or by exercising an option to purchase granted for the duration of the lease. This opportunity allows businesses to choose the right time for them to buy during their lease when it suits their financial position.
Units acquired on a freehold basis for owner/occupation, as well as being held directly by the business, are also sometimes held in a SSIP or SAP (Small Self Invested Pension or Self-Administered Pension), in the company’s directors’ pension scheme or held personally by the business owner and then leased back to the business.
The OYO Business Units estates are built to the same standards as the larger institutional multi-let industrial/warehouse schemes developed by Ravenbourne. The units aim to be flexible in terms of planning use, normally benefiting from B1, B2 and B8 use classes while providing a higher specification than is generally found in small business units of this type.
To date nine schemes, totalling 382,850ft² (35,568m²) and providing a total of 167 units, have been completed. These are located at Castle Vale in Birmingham, Andover and Portsmouth in Hampshire, Thame and Wallingford in Oxfordshire, Littlehampton in West Sussex, Dagenham Dock in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, Sittingbourne in Kent and Belvedere in the London Borough of Bexley. A second phase at Belvedere is now under construction and planning permission has recently been obtained for a second phase of development at Portsmouth.