The business was established by the Dickinson family in 1912 as the
Grainger Trust to acquire tenanted residential properties in
Newcastle upon Tyne. In the 1970s and 1980s it acquired large residential estates from
British Coal,
British Rail and
Reckitt & Coleman. It was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange in 1983. In 1989 it acquired
Channel Hotels & Properties and in 2003 it acquired
Bradford Property Trust. From 1987 to 2002,
Quentin Wallop, 10th Earl of Portsmouth, was a non-executive director, and as of 1999 he owned 16.55% of the equity, making him the firm's largest shareholder of the company. In 2006 Grainger entered into a joint venture with Development Securities to develop Curzon Park in
Birmingham. In 2007 it changed its name to
Grainger plc. In 2008 a consortium of
Helical Bar and Grainger was named as the preferred developer for the King Street regeneration scheme in
Hammersmith. In 2010, Grainger acquired AIM-listed Sovereign Reversions, an
equity release provider, and subsequently formed a 50:50 joint venture with Moorfield, a UK
real estate investor, developer and
private equity fund manager. In 2011 the company entered into a development agreement with the
Defence Infrastructure Organisation to create the Wellesley Development, which incorporates the
Cambridge Military Hospital at
Aldershot and which will generate 3,850 homes. In 2019, Grainger was announced as the
build-to-rent partner of
Transport for London (TfL), which will build new homes on land in TfL's ownership, potentially delivering in excess of 3,000 homes across
London. ==Operations==