Thrive Homes and CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund announce first portfolio acquisition as part of a longer-term partnership which aspires to acquire and develop over 1,000 affordable homes
13 January 2022
Leading professional landlord, Thrive Homes and leading global real assets investment manager, CBRE Investment Management on behalf of their UK Affordable Housing Fund (UK AHF) have completed on their first transaction together.
CBRE Investment Management has acquired a portfolio of 117 affordable rent and shared ownership properties across six schemes in the Northern Home Counties that had been developed by Thrive Homes. This represents the first tranche of a wider partnership, which aspires to acquire over 1,000 affordable homes. Thrive will retain a minority economic interest in the homes and will also oversee the development of and the sales, lettings, onboarding, and aftercare of the codeveloped properties that will be available for affordable rent and shared ownership. In a move to provide an equitable ownership structure in the affordable housing sector, as long term partners, Thrive Homes and CBRE Investment Management will, share the risk and return of ownership and operation of the homes over the long term.
The transaction will assist Thrive in accelerating its development programme of c.300 homes per annum which will continue to grow by building out schemes in Thrive’s 1,000-unit landbank and ultimately enable the housing association to achieve its growth objective of doubling in size over the next ten years. This builds on the 5,100 homes that Thrive currently owns and manages across the home counties.
CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund was one of the first, and now more established, UK unlisted funds targeting institutional client capital into affordable housing across the UK. It has spearheaded the need for institutional capital to fulfil the funding shortfall of investment to build, refurbish and maintain good quality affordable housing stock where it’s needed most, while delivering attractive returns* for its investors.
Jack Burnham, Executive Director of Growth & Investment for Thrive Homes commented: “We are extremely excited to announce our partnership with CBRE Investment Management. It helps to provide Thrive with a viable route to meet our strategic growth objectives to double in size, increasing our development programme to over 500 homes per annum, but most importantly will enable us to deliver much needed affordable homes in areas that are some of the most expensive to live in the UK.
We are delighted to have entered into partnership with CBRE Investment Management and are particularly pleased this transaction will provide not just shared ownership properties, but affordable rented properties too.”
Andrew Davey, Fund Manager of the UK Affordable Housing Fund, CBRE Investment Management added: “This transaction represents the commencement of an exciting partnership with Thrive, whose ethical ethos is aligned with ours. By delivering much needed affordable homes we are meeting our investors’ social impact objectives as well as investing in good quality homes managed by Thrive to provide long-term income for investors.
This transaction concluded a successful year for the Fund. We have experienced significant interest from investors who are increasingly seeking an investment opportunity which provides both demonstrable impact qualities whilst maintaining robust return characteristics. As a result, the Fund has provided equity for over 1,000 much-needed affordable homes to date and have significant equity to invest in similar opportunities with counterparties such as Thrive who share our investors ethos and long-term objectives.”
* Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns
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About Thrive Homes:
Thrive Homes is a professional landlord with a strong ethical code, providing quality homes where people enjoy living.
Thrive Homes owns and manages over 5,000 homes across the home counties, delivering much-needed homes for social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership and market rent across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Thrive Homes is focused on increasing housing availability for a wider range of customers in one of the most expensive parts of the UK. In 2021/2022, Thrive Homes have built over 220 new homes, with over 95% of these being affordable homes. Homes are at the heart of our business and we pride ourselves on providing quality services so customers can enjoy where they live, with 75% of customers satisfied with their experience with Thrive Homes during 2020/21. Over the next ten years the housing association aims to build 5,000 new homes across multiple price points and tenures.
Thrive Homes has been named one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For since 2018 with a two-star award following the latest survey. We also received the Investors in People Gold Accreditation in 2020.
In 2019, Thrive Homes was the first UK housebuilder or housing association to be awarded the Planet Mark Award and began designing “the green standard” which all of its homes will comply with from 2021 onwards. The developer and professional landlord continues to be a sector leader in sustainability by increasing its green initiatives year on year to ensure its carbon footprint is as low as possible.
Media can contact ThrivePR@becg.com or call 020 3219 7946.
This is a marketing communication. Please refer to the Prospectus for [CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund] before making any final investment decisions. No offer or solicitation is being made to US investors by virtue of this release. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy shares in [CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund], or any other product, and may not be used or relied upon by US investors for making any investment decision. Any offer or solicitation will be made only by means of a confidential Prospectus and related application or subscription form which will only be provided to qualified investors.
About CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund
The CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund is an unlisted open-ended core fund designed to invest in affordable housing assets across the United Kingdom. The Fund provides investors exposure to an emerging investment asset class providing diversification and distributing stable income. The Fund launched in December 2018, with circa £250m of seed capital from 13 institutional investors. The Fund offers investors the opportunity to invest in a high social impact sector with strong ESG credentials.
About CBRE Investment Management
CBRE Investment Management is a leading global real assets investment management firm with $133.1 billion in assets under management* as of September 30, 2021. As an investor/operator, the firm creates sustainable investment solutions across real assets categories, geographies, risk profiles and execution formats so that its clients, users, people and communities thrive.
CBRE Investment Management is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE). It harnesses the data and market insights, investment sourcing and other resources of the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue) for the benefit of its investors. CBRE Group, Inc. has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. For more information about CBRE Investment Management, please visit www.CBREIM.com
*Assets under management (AUM) refers to the fair market value of real assets-related investments with respect to which CBRE Investment Management provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice and which generally consist of investments in real assets; equity in funds and joint ventures; securities portfolios; operating companies and real assets-related loans. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Investment Management’s presence in the global real assets market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers.