Housing Digital’s Post

Eildon Housing Association has secured £18.7 million funding from Royal Bank of Scotland to build new homes in the Scottish Borders. https://lnkd.in/evYGKPux

Scottish Housing Association, Eildon Housing Association, announced their £18.7m funding injection from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). This funding is to help the 3,000 home landlord build up to 100 homes across the Scottish Borders. Read all about it in our latest article ⬇️🗞️ #ScottishHousing #EildonHousing #HousingAssociation #ScottishBorders #AffordableHousing https://lnkd.in/emVgXZf2

Insightful yarn in The Australian Financial Review earlier in the week about the Housing Australia Future Fund - round one. 1️⃣🏠My first observation is for the skeptics out there who must be surprised by the overwhelming market response. I remember hearing things like "gambling on the stock market," "off-budget funds can’t build homes," and "this program won’t build a single home" before this all started. However, reports from PowerHousing Australia indicate that 37 community housing providers have submitted applications for a total of approximately 26,120 aggregate dwellings across projects in the tender round that closed in March. We also know that there are several state and territory government-backed bids in addition to industry-led proposals and other private-backed projects. So, the program is well and truly oversubscribed. I don’t have an exact number but let’s call it closer to 40k for now. Our national housing groups are calling on the Australian Government to double the investment in the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord, and we support this call as well. The central argument, of course, is to ensure that the pipeline that has been proven up through this first round can be fully realised. 2️⃣🏠My next observation is that all of these applications need to be critically assessed. That level of dwelling numbers means hundreds of projects, requiring very detailed assessment. I am not sure Housing Australia started with a team large enough to do that, but I’m sure they are quickly pulling one together, which might even require third party input. I would favour that over some of the AI-based tools. 3️⃣🏠It should be noted that many of these projects have sophisticated financial agreements behind them, utilising HAFF funds but also attracting debt finance and others financial layers to leverage the program for an even greater numbers of affordable homes. I look forward to seeing the evaluation in future that proves up how this program has leveraged far beyond what a more traditional capital grants program might achieve (let me state here though, that both are critically important). 4️⃣🏠Fourth and final observation for now is that I can’t help but be suitably impressed by the response to the HAFF. It underpins a deeply held belief that many of us have that community housing is a sector primed for growth in Australia and is ready to do some serious lifting in future housing supply. It's going to be a big few months ahead as we learn more about what gets through the first HAFF gate. National Shelter Q Shelter Community Housing Industry Association CHIA Queensland #housing #australia #futurefund #housingsupply #housingaffordability #homematters #bettertogether

devil in the detail. it was great to hear the affordable housing programme ( AHP) will increase to £3.1bn. i haven’t seen the detail so I don’t know whether this is annually for the next 5 years. I hope it’s not because we need MUCH more grant to even scratch the surface of homelessness, temporary accommodation - let alone new forming households / transfers. The 21/26 AHO settlement was £11.5bn so £2.3bn annually. So from £2.3bn to £3.1bn sounds ok’. Until you look at build cost and house price inflation since 2021 to date is around 30%. Simple maths tells me there is no real increase. It’s more or less keeping up where we were in 2021. add the fact that we need social rent which requires more grant - it seems we will be stuck with affordable rent to even keep pace with numbers. So the current £30bn housing benefit bill will continue to rise. I hope I’m completely wrong* and significantly more grant will be available to begin to make a difference. * I was wrong once. I now accept Little Chef restaurants are not built on ley lines.

Our Director of Research Dora Lee told The Stranger “it’s not the renter protections” that make lenders pass on affordable housing projects. As the economy comes out of a period of low interest rates into higher interest rates and high inflation, “We've seen the industry tighten up its underwriting standards and require more margin and more profitability in the projects that they do underwrite, which is constricting the amount of available capital for affordable housing projects.” Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gGQpAUNT #interestrates #municipalbonds #investing #affordablehousing #muniland #inflation #assetmanagement

I am not a planning lawyer but this morning's press release from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has clear relevance to anyone involved in the housing and homelessness fields: "Today’s changes tackle the dire inheritance faced by the government, in which 1.3 million households are on social housing waiting lists and a record number of households – including 160,000 children – are living in temporary accommodation." So what does it say? ➡️ Councils will be told they must play their part to meet housing need by reaching a new combined target of 370,000 homes a year. (Remember that last Thursday the Prime Minister presented the Plan for Change to Parliament which included "Building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects). ➡️ New immediate mandatory housing targets. ➡️ The updated NPPF will require councils to review their greenbelt boundaries to meet targets, identifying and prioritising lower quality ‘grey belt’ land. ➡️ Any development on greenbelt must meet strict requirements, via the new ‘golden rules’, which require developers to provide the necessary infrastructure for local communities, such as nurseries, GP surgeries and transport, as well as a premium level of social and affordable housing. ➡️ Councils and developers will also need to give greater consideration to social rent when building new homes and local leaders have greater powers to build genuinely affordable homes for those who need them most. In terms of action already taken, this includes: ☑️ The launch of a New Homes Accelerator to unblock thousands of homes stuck in the  planning system. ☑️  The establishment of an independent New Towns Taskforce. ☑️ The award of £68 million to 54 local councils to unlock housing on brownfield sites.  ☑️ The award of £47 million to seven councils to unlock homes stalled by nutrient neutrality rules.  ☑️ An additional £3 billion in housing guarantees to help builders apply for more accessible loans from banks and lenders.  ☑️ The extension of the existing Home Building Fund for next year providing up to £700 million of support to SME housebuilders, delivering an additional 12,000 new homes.  

This is encouraging new funding but I wonder why bringing back social housing from tenancy fraudsters is not included. A typical specialist fraud investigator brings back around 10 homes a year from tenancy fraudsters, that can then be allocated to homeless families. The economics is simple- for £50k a year additional investment in ine investigator for a local authority or housing associations, you get 10 properties back to be reallocated. For the cost of just one housing unit to be built with this new funding, a council given the same amount of money could easily bring back an additional 40 or 50 homes. More homes and much faster than building from new.

Gloucester housing group Mears Group PLC posts strong six-month performance 🏘️💪 Mears Group, a Gloucester-based housing and social care provider, has shared an ‘excellent’ first-half performance in a trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2024. The group posted revenues of £580.0m for the period – up 10 per cent from £525.6 million in the first half of 2023 – with pre-tax profits up 44 per cent at £30.5 million. A recent highlight has been securing a new contract with North Lanarkshire Council, which is expected to generate annual revenues of more than £125 million for a minimum of eight years. Mears Group also helped many clients secure grants through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, facilitating more than £50 million of funding through waves 1 and 2, with applications for wave 3 now underway. The board anticipates full-year revenues of around £1.1 billion. CEO Lucas Critchley said... Continue reading... https://lnkd.in/eX3_9SDF #housing #property #strong #finance #residentialproperty #report #gloucsnews #gloucshour #businessnews #businessintelligence

This article highlights the constraints faced by the #housebuilding sector and #housingassociations in delivering ambitious targets to bridge the demand of #affordablehomes, and how #privatecapital can help to fill this huge gap. "The last time the UK was building more than 300,000 homes a year – the rate that would be needed to hit the 1.5m homes goal – was in 1970, ..............funding cuts and restrictions on borrowing introduced in the 1980s were such that councils’ ability to build was weakened, which has meant they have not supplied more than 2% of new homes for more than 40 years. The bulk of development has been taken on by housing associations, which now deliver 78% of all affordable homes. " Birketts LLP https://lnkd.in/dMkckGyF