HH Fund’s Post

🚨𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐦 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 £𝟑𝟕𝟓𝐌 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐔𝐊 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝 🚨 The UK rental market remains red hot🔥! Heimstaden Bostad’s UK Residential Fund has secured £𝟑𝟕𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧  from Northern LGPS to develop 𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 across the country. This follows KOREA NATIONAL PENSION SERVICE (𝐍𝐏𝐒) committing £𝟑𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 to Long Harbour Ltd's fund for another 𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬. 🏠 🏡 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: The Labour Party’s pledge to deliver 𝟏.𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 over five years is off to a slow start, with private builders scaling back due to high interest rates and weaker demand. December saw UK housebuilding drop at its fastest pace in six months, deepening the housing crisis, according to S&P Global. 💡𝐒𝐞𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲: Amid the challenges, Heim sees a chance to meet growing rental demand. “With a shortage of development capital today, we see 2025 as the perfect time to deploy our resources,” said Christian Birrell, Heim’s Head of UK. The fund also plans to raise additional equity in 2025, targeting a total of £𝟖𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 to fund its initiatives. 🌟 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝: Institutional capital is playing an increasingly critical role in addressing the UK’s housing shortage. Heim’s and Long Harbour’s recent moves highlight the potential for private investors to step in where traditional builders have pulled back. Meanwhile, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ ambitious plan to pool £1.3 trillion ($1.7 trillion) of pension savings into “megafunds” aims to supercharge private investment and drive economic growth. Could this dual approach be the game-changer the UK housing market so urgently needs? 💭 Bloomberg News article: https://lnkd.in/eWX-kYYb

The real issue here is a reliance on the public purse to fund delivery of affordable housing that could be delivered at no cost to the taxpayer via S106 agreements if sufficient viable (i.e. greenfield) sites were released for development. A clear case of a deadweight loss to society that needs to be rectified. I quote: "Recently housing associations have turned away from Section 106 acquisitions to focus more on land-led development. This is because Stockport has “tended not to have huge 106 requirements”, typically focusing on “blocks of affordable and blocks of private” rather than “pepper-potting” of tenures." Or to put it another way, housing associations cannot commit to S106 opportunities that do not exist,

#socialhousing #publicgood #humanright #privateequity #financialisationofhousing #HomesAct 'In its most recent year-end letter, the private equity firm Blackstone gave its stockholders a seemingly counterintuitive assurance: the lack of new housing stock was reason for optimism. Why does a stagnant growth in new living spaces benefit Blackstone? Because it is the nation’s largest corporate landlord. For the firm and its investors, chronic housing shortages mean more power to set prices and more leverage to extract wealth from vulnerable working-class tenants. Blackstone’s letter reveals the malevolent and distortionary role private equity plays in our residential real estate market and underscores the fundamental problem with housing commodification writ large. Our market-based system simply does not give the private sector incentives to meet the public’s demand for high-quality, permanently affordable housing. Providing it would be against the sector’s economic interests since new supply would bring down prices and negatively impact profitability. The negative effects of housing commodification are all around us. For-profit investors are snatching up properties at an alarming rate – 1 in 6 of all residential homes in the second quarter of this year – giving them the power to charge residents junk fees on top of rent increases. As a result, a record number of renter households – 22.4 million individuals and families, half of all renters – are now paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent and other housing-related expenses. This places a significant strain on household budgets and contributes to a range of problems related to mental health including anxiety and depression. Tenant unions and working-class institutions across the country have spent years fighting back against the financialization of housing, organizing their communities against speculators in favor of greater tenant protections and fighting for housing to be a  human right. Affordable housing already accounts for eight percent of Blackstone’s BREIT portfolio, but there is no genuine commitment to providing reasonably priced homes to working-class households. The firm has opened its coffers more than once to defeat rent control ballot initiatives and it exploits programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to secure the tax benefits that come with investing in affordable housing. Yet Blackstone still raises rents, evicts tenants, and underinvests in maintenance. The permanence of affordability is the cornerstone of social housing. Social housing will make certain that housing is treated as a public good that satisfies a social need, not a financial asset to profit off of. Only when speculators and concentrated wealth are reined in will we solve the housing crisis and guarantee safe, healthy, affordable, and dignified homes for all.'

The Development Bank of Wales and Housing Growth Partnership (HGP) have joined forces to invest more than £14m into Edwards Homes’ new residential development in Connah’s Quay, North Wales.

Build to Rent, Build to Rent, Build to Rent...this seems to be the sole focus of the large super funds at the moment. That's kind of frustrating when not everyone wants to rent and there are shared equity options like HOPE Housing Fund Management Limited for #essentialworkers like #police, #nurse, #teachers and so on. But, at least with BTR we are seeing money come into the market and that means Australians in rental accommodation will be able to get better access to the market as well as vitally important certainty of tenure. And I'm sure that in the longer run the good news that the major super funds are actually doing something in housing will ultimately lead to a portfolio view which will see capital allocated to HOPE and other shared equity options. BTR and Shared Equity are two of the approaches to affordable housing. Yesterday the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) hosted another affordable housing round table where we looked at the Australian Co-operative Housing market and examples of how these are working in Victoria and NSW. I'm glad I've been able to help Police Bank Ltd. play its role in this discussion and in proposing a solution like HOPE. Australia needs more affordable housing, and it feels like we are moving strongly in the right direction. (Not sure if the article is gated, apologies if it is.)

👏👏Exciting news from Social Housing magazine today: #Legal&GeneralAffordableHomes are reportedly in discussions with Registered Providers (RPs) nationwide about raising equity to address the sector’s funding needs due to the increasing costs of dealing with problematic legacy homes. Investors into the sector have often focused on acquiring new/newer homes or with higher EPC ratings. RPs on the other hand still have to deal with the high costs of retrofitting older legacy stock to meet energy efficiency, building, fire, and health and safety standards. This has been one of the factors leading to a reduction in development capacity in recent years. It's encouraging to see #LGAH looking to address this need and reinforcing their position as a long-term investor in the housing sector. This initiative would support RPs development plans and aligns with the new Government’s commitment to building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. #planforhousing #fundingsolutions #affordablehousing #housingfinance #buildingsafety #fundingretrofit #portfoliotransactions #BBhousing Louise Leaver Andy Spicer Rose Klemperer Andrew Shaw Jessica Church Rebecca Gibson Bevan Brittan LLP The article below requires a subscription to read: https://lnkd.in/e2m_yfQy

Transforming Scunthorpe's Housing Fund Funds are available to support schemes which will address one or more of the following measures: 1. Regeneration and redevelopment of a vacant property to bring back into residential use. 2. Conversion of vacant commercial floorspace to residential use (upper floors within the core town centre area) 3. Development of new-build homes https://lnkd.in/eiMRjFSd

We found Indiana had high risk from private equity's influence in the housing market. ➡️% of homes purchased by medium, large, mega investors 𝟏𝟏.𝟏% ➡️ Change in share of homes purchased by medium, large, mega investors 𝟐𝟎.𝟒% (data from 2018-2022) PrivateEquityRisk.org https://lnkd.in/gxwyiCzz

Strong mid-year performance with £34m invested in existing homes and 457 new homes completed • Turnover rose to £167m, up 9% from 2023 (£153m). Turnover from social housing lettings was £147m, 88% of total turnover • Operating surplus was £50m (2023: £48m) and post-tax surplus was £36m (2023: £33m) • Operating margin on social housing lettings maintained at 34% (2023: 34%)  • Overall operating margin was 30% (2023: 31%) After being named as England's biggest builder of social rent homes, we have continued to invest in our development programme and have completed 457 new homes during the past six months, of which 220 were for social rent. With our in-house construction team building 53 of the completed homes. This marks another period of robust financial performance for Bromford as we continue to invest in our existing homes and provide new affordable, energy efficient homes. More info - https://bit.ly/4fdW0Xb #UKHousing #TradingUpdate Rachel Hurst PAUL WALSH Amanda Swann Clare Crawford Catherine Jarrett Martyn Blackman

The additional BTR and Student housing may not be affordable housing when newly built, however as it ages it will become more affordable. It also increases the supply of available rental property, taking some pressure off the private rental market with less than 1% vacancy. I think at this point with no other large scale viable solutions to solve the housing crisis, some of these new housing products need to be encouraged to see which ones have the most beneficial impact. Any thoughts? As always please be respectful, inclusive and polite to others. This is for the purpose of encouraging discussion and I am not advocating a particular position. If you found this post useful, follow me and tap the all posts 🔔 on my profile to receive more of my posts in your feed. https://lnkd.in/gmbv2YBE