Creation of Swallowfield Homes announced as Man Group completes registration of Habitare Homes
A trio of former developers have announced the launch of an affordable housing developer, Swallowfield Homes, designed to build and own housing schemes on behalf of property investors.
Brian Ham, formerly acquisitions director at for-profit provider Sage Partnerships and prior to that a Home Group executive director of development, has set up the business alongside experienced developers Colin Peacock and John Parkinson.
Peacock has worked in development for 50 year in the UK and the US, and has served on the boards of three listed companies, including as president of US developer Speyhawk New York. John Parkinson is a former Savills and JLL partner and has also been MD of contractor Bam’s student housing arm, Bam Connislow.
The new firm said in a statement that it intended to work with investors in land such as pension funds to bring forward housing developments, which will then be leased to registered providers or local authorities to manage.
The firm said it will “only work with established Registered Providers who meet the highest regulatory and viability standards and can demonstrate an excellent credit rating” in order to ensure that the highest customer service standards can be met.
The launch comes on the same day that hedge fund Man Group announced that it had received regulatory approval for a subsidiary of its community housing fund, Habitare Homes, to set up as a registered provider.
It also comes just weeks after former Crest chief executive Stephen Stone revealed he had set up a for-profit association, Flint Housing, which follows the success of operations such as Blackstone’s Sage Housing.
Swallowfield’s rationale, like Man Group’s, is that developers of affordable housing can benefit from an increasing demand from investors for assets which satisfy ever-growing ethical and sustainability criteria, known as ESG.
Housing quango Homes England has said that for-profit associations can bid for strategic partnership status in the latest affordable housing programme for the first time.
The statement from Swallowfield Homes said the firm expected to complete its first deals this year, but did not say how it was being funded. A spokesperson for the business said it was not intending to become a registered provider itself, instead leasing homes to registered housing associations.
Brian Ham said that ethical lease-based schemes of the sort Swallowfield were proposing were “part of the solution to the UK’s housing crisis.”
He said: “Our model offers a solution for established Registered Providers and local authorities who want to build affordable homes and investors who want long-term, stable income streams. We’ve seen demand for this type of funding increase exponentially as pension funds put ESG at the heart of their investment strategy and RPs look to innovate.”
This story was amended on 21.04.21 to clarfiy that Swallowfield is not itself proposing to become a for-profit registered provider
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