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Markets Today: Lloyds' rental market ambitions, Tesla bets on AI

Catch up with this morning's top news stories
August 19, 2021
  • Lloyds targets growing rental market, despite the reputational risks
  • Tesla looks to divert attention from regulatory crackdown on its Autopilot feature

Lloyds targets generation rent

Generation rent, Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) wants your money too.

Not content with being one of the country’s largest mortgage providers, the lending giant is now also aiming to be among its biggest landlords, according to the Financial Times.

Citing internal documents, the paper reports that Lloyds’ rental business wants to acquire 10,000 properties by the end of 2025, with a further aim to hit 50,000 by 2030. Grainger (GRI), the UK’s largest private residential landlord, currently owns about 9,100.

The move indicates that Lloyds, whose traditional lending business is being squeezed by low interest rates, sees a big opportunity in the rental market, which has grown rapidly as home ownership becomes increasingly unaffordable for young Brits and families.

It will follow other large businesses like Legal & General (LGEN) and M&G (MNG), which have already become major investors in a UK rental sector once dominated by small-scale landlords. But it remains to be seen if these investing giants will face a backlash from Brits already frustrated by high rents. In Berlin, where renters have long been in the majority, campaigners are now calling on the city government to expropriate thousands of properties from big corporate landlords: an issue that will soon be voted on in an upcoming referendum.

Tesla gears up for “AI Day”

Fans of ‘Knight Rider’ rejoice, today is “AI Day” at the world’s most sci-fi-obsessed carmaker, Tesla (US:TSLA).

The gala will apparently give the company, which has previously hosted such landmark events as “Autonomy Day” and “Battery Day”, the opportunity to set out its vision for the future of artificial intelligence in its vehicles. 

But it will come not long after the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday that it had opened a probe into 11 crashes involving Tesla’s Autopilot driverless feature. Since then the company has shed $15.9bn (£11.6bn) in market value, while US senators have called for another investigation into Tesla’s promotion of the controversial technology.

Self-title 'Technoking' Elon Musk has been criticised in particular for naming the feature Autopilot, despite his company’s cars still being unable to fully drive themselves. But any new technological developments should at least be eagerly awaited in the UK, where since announcing in 2016 that “driverless cars are the future, not science fiction”, the government has sought to lead the way in introducing autonomous cars on its roads.

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