Category: Latest News

Eutopia Homes and Housing Growth Partnership (HGP) have announced the completion of a Joint Venture which will progress two neighbouring Build to Rent schemes, totalling 144 units, in Exeter.

Both schemes form part of the wider masterplan for Exmouth Junction (a 15 acres site on a former railway junction), which will see the delivery of 540 units in the coming years, transforming the area and providing a range of amenities in a landscaped setting.

Eutopia will break ground on the first of the two developments, The Hay, in March 2023.  The Hay will provide residents with a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments and has been designed to the highest environmental standards: features and amenities include a car club, electric vehicle charge points and 100 cycle storage spaces.  Two roof terraces and a residents lounge and collaborative space on the ground floor will create a social, community focussed living experience for residents.

The joint venture will look to sell both schemes post a rental stabilisation period, with strong rental demand expected from young professionals in Exeter which continues to experience a significant undersupply in accommodation in the city centre.

John McKeon, Investment Director for HGP, noted:

“We are delighted to be supporting our first Build to Rent Schemes alongside Eutopia. Scott and the team at Eutopia have a strong track record of delivery in the BTR sector. We look forward to supporting Eutopia across further schemes and supporting more of our partners in the BTR sector. “

Scott Hammond, CEO of Eutopia Homes,

“HGP’s investment into the emerging BTR sector is great news for the industry. The Exeter schemes offer great rental prospects for professionals who face limited opportunities to rent well designed apartments. As part of the developments, we will be offering 20% of the units for key workers at a discounted market rent – the first such offering in the City.”

Notes:

HGP is a social impact equity investment fund backed by Lloyds Banking Group and Homes England with an objective to support SME and mid-market housebuilders and developers deliver new homes.  To date, HGP investments have delivered over 7,500 new homes (with GDV in excess of £2bn) across Build to Rent, PBSA, Open Market, Retirement Living and Regeneration schemes.

Eutopia Homes was formed in 2017 by Scott Hammond. Eutopia was established to focus on city centre BTR projects close to transport hubs in key regional UK cities with first class universities, strong retail and leisure facilities and a strong employment base. The company has secured planning consent for over 1500 units in Birmingham, Exeter and Greater Manchester. It has further pipeline projects in Gloucester and Kent for 500 residential units.

We are delighted to announce the addition of Nicola Barclay to the HGP Senior Advisor Panel.

Most recently Nicola was Chief Executive and main board director of industry body, Homes for Scotland. In that role Nicola represented the industry on the NHBC Scotland Committee and the Scottish Government Building Standards Futures Board, and played a leading role in  supporting its members to deliver high-quality, energy-efficient and sustainable homes.

Nicola is a qualified planner with 30 years’ professional experience in the Scottish housebuilding sector, holding senior positions within several house builders, as well as the Scottish Futures Trust.

HGP Senior Advisors are a group of experienced industry experts funded by HGP who are made available to our partners when HGP invests in a scheme, to provide support and guidance as it is required throughout the life of the project.  To date, our Senior Advisors have provided over 900 days of support to our partners.

Neil has an enviable track record of deal making across all property sectors having held senior land positions in a number of national and regional housebuilders and property companies. With a specialism in strategic and immediate land acquisition; development appraisal; joint ventures; affordable housing; planning promotion and site identification, Neil will bring a wide range of experiences, contacts and skills to the HGP team.

HGP provides equity funding to all aspects of the residential living sector including PBSA, BTR, PRS, retirement, private sale and affordable housing. With a strong focus on deal making and delivery, Neil’s focus will be to work with partners to invest HGP’s equity in joint ventures.

Social impact investor Housing Growth Partnership (HGP) and Midlands-based developer Rippon Homes are proud to announce their most recent partnership to help bring about the delivery of houses to benefit local people and communities.

HGP, which is backed by Lloyds Bank and Homes England, has awarded an investment of £1.6m to the developer to help bring high quality new homes to the village of Woodhall Spa. Woodhall Spa is an attractive village located 13 miles east of Lincoln with good transport links making it a suitable destination for commuters into Lincoln, Sleaford and Newark. The village is noted for its nearby golf club and is recognised as the base for England Golf, being the governing body for amateur golf in England and also boasts The Kinema in the Woods (the only fully functioning cinema in the UK to employ back projection, tucked away in the woodland).

The scheme on Tattershall Road, to be named Woodcock Grange”, is HGP’s first investment alongside Rippon Homes and is set to deliver a mix of one to four bedroom home styles, including bungalows, which will benefit from single or double garages as well as a private garden. The homeswill be suitable for a range of buyers including first-time buyers, singles, couples, retirees as well as families and will be available for sale towards the end of 2022.

Rippon Homes, founded in 1953, has an impressive track record of delivering quality homes in desirable locations. Rippon Homes sees partnering with HGP as a great opportunity to allow the business to scale further and bring new developments to market.

Mike Murphy, HGP investment director, said: “We’re extremely proud and excited to be working with Rippon Homes for the first time to enable the company to grow its already impressive portfolio of developments. “With our eyes firmly fixed on the future, we are now in discussions about the sites that are in the pipeline and we look forward to working with Ian and the team moving forwards”

Ian Dyke, managing director at Rippon Homes, said: “This investment will be pivotal to our growth and we’re excited to be on this journey with a trusted investment partner.”

If you are housebuilder looking for growth and to accelerate your business through funding get in touch with HGP today. For further information about the new homes for sale visit https://www.ripponhomes.co.uk/find-a-new-home/woodcock-grange/.

Housing Growth Partnership have bolstered its Midlands & Wales team with the appointment of James Tudge as the newly recruited Investment Manager. James will be responsible for supporting deal origination, transaction execution and portfolio management in the Midlands and Wales region.

James Tudge’s appointment will support HGP’s recent expansion of their investment ambition through a broadening of parameters and additional funding and marks the latest of number of recent appointments for the Social Impact Investor, which is backed by Lloyds Banking Group and Homes England.

Mike Murphy, Investment Director for HGP in the Midlands & Wales region said “I’m delighted to announce the appointment of James Tudge as Investment Manager for the Midlands & Wales team. With James extensive real estate experience in the region focusing on debt structuring for Private Groups, Social Housing and Housebuilder clients we believe his wide skillset is ideally suited to support the continued growth of the Midlands & Wales region. This is an exciting time for us with a lot of impressive development schemes in the pipeline and we’re looking forward to having James onboard to support the growth of our developer partners.”

James Tudge comments, “My background in banking and finance, having worked across a variety of roles within Lloyds Banking Group for the past 16 years, predominantly specialising in Commercial Real Estate has given me a sound understanding of the Midlands & Wales residential market. This is a very exciting time to be joining HGP following the recent announcement of the fund expansion and I’m really looking forward to working with Mike and the team and to partner with those developers who share our ambition to deliver high quality and affordable homes which provide a positive sustainable addition to local communities.”

If you’re an experienced developer in the Midlands & Wales region, get in touch today.

HGP is pleased to announce an expansion of our investment ambition through a broadening of parameters and additional funding.  The new fund will run in parallel to the new SME fund launched at the end of 2021.

This is being done to allow HGP to play as significant a role as possible in supporting the UK’s diverse and evolving housing needs.  It will take a multi tenure approach whilst significantly extending the scale of what and who they can support.

HGP can now invest up to £30m of equity into any one single project and can commit up to £60m into multi site strategic partnerships with mid market housebuilders and developers.  The extended parameters also create the potential for HGP to support larger opportunities across all the living sectors including  regeneration, later living projects and Build to Rent market.

Last weeks announcement of the £80m joint venture with Kier Group is a great example of extended focus with HGP supporting an established housebuilder deliver on its growth plans across multiple mixed-use regeneration schemes.

Vic Hepburn, Head of Fund and CEO of HGP commented:

‘We are focussed on having a significantly greater impact and increasing the number and type of homes HGP can support.  In less certain times, this is also an opportunity to demonstrate our willingness to support the market through our partnership approach to investment.  Supporting great teams has been key to the fund’s achievements to date and that will continue to be central to our strategy’

Today HGP and Kier Property have announced a joint venture partnership to develop residential sites across the UK. The five-year deal, worth £80m on a 50:50 joint basis, will focus on residential developments on urban brownfield sites, initially across the South East of England.

The joint venture’s objective is to regenerate urban brownfield sites, delivering new homes connected to the needs of local towns and communities. The partnership will acquire sites with or without full planning permission and targets building 2,000 homes for sale and rental by 2027. It also evidences a strategic step-change for both Kier and HGP, with the partnership fulfilling Kier’s ambition to grow in the mixed-use regeneration space, while HGP will broaden its approach through larger transactions and strategic partnerships.

Leigh Thomas, managing director of Kier Property commented: “This partnership sits well with our five-year business plan to expand our offering in the mixed-use regeneration area.  It  will significantly augment our residential regeneration strategy and we have identified a number of sites that we plan to deliver through the partnership, where we can add value through the planning process.”

Rachel Miller, Investment Director at Housing Growth Partnership commented, ‘We are looking forward to working with Kier Property Development in this relationship which will see significant capital deployed to bring forward and develop an additional homes for rent and sale in areas with a shortage of supply. We will focus on urban brownfield sites and Kier share HGP’s ambition to create homes which are positive additions to existing places and communities.’

Vic Hepburn, CEO Housing Growth Partnership commented: ‘The partnership with Kier represents the next step in the expansion of HGP, so we can play as full a role as possible in supporting the UK’s diverse and evolving housing need as part of our commitment to help Britain prosper.

Kier Property is a specialist in investing, developing and managing developments in a range of sectors, building out a number of these through joint ventures.

 

A Birmingham-based developer and publican have saved a historic Digbeth pub from becoming just another memory after revising plans and removing the conversion of it from the initially consented scheme.

The 10M Group in conjunction with social impact investor Housing Growth Partnership (HGP) wanted the Fountain Inn, which neighbours the development of 39 properties, to be retained and its future assured as a historic community pub.

HGP, which is backed by Lloyds Bank and Homes England, is pleased to have invested 1.3m in the build of a brand-new housing scheme and has announced that this development becomes its 100^th investment deal to date.

Situated in Digbeth, the scheme comprises 39 one- and two-bedroom apartments set across two separate buildings, and all based around an attractive communal courtyard and with the pub neighbouring the development.

With a successful track record of building in the West Midlands and the North West, 10M Group’s previous schemes have encompassed a variety of different projects in the residential sector.

Mike Murphy, HGP Investment Director, says: “This development marks a significant milestone for us marking HGP’s 100^th deal and demonstrates that we’re helping developers and  housebuilders to build a range of much-needed properties with unique features. We’re delighted that these apartments will be in one of the most distinctive parts of Birmingham because of its connectivity and nearby amenities and with a historic pub next door, we just know the accommodation will be popular.”

Russell Townsend, MD of 10M Group, says: “As a design-led business we couldn’t have made this exciting scheme become a reality without the investment of HGP and the speed and ease of working together. The pub retention and refurbishment is the icing on the cake, and in addition to using modern methods of construction to make it stand out from other developments, the courtyard will also be a valuable outside space for residents too. We’re looking forward to working together again.”

Steve Price, owner at the Fountain Inn, comments: “I’m delighted that I have such forward-thinking neighbours that are in full support of retaining and preserving historic Birmingham pubs like mine.”

All of the apartments will be ready for occupation in 2023.

 

 

Housing Growth Partnership was named ‘Property Finance Team of the Year’ at the recent 2022 Insider North West Residential Property Awards.
HGP was selected by the panel of judges ahead of shortlisted nominees Close Brothers, Lloyds Bank, Cowgills, Cynergy Bank and Oaknorth. HGP, along with over 800 other property professionals, attended the event at Manchester Central hosted by Matt Baker of the One Show and Blue Peter fame.  The event provided a great opportunity to meet socially with HGP partners and catch up with others from across the industry to celebrate another busy 12 months in the north west residential property sector.

HGP guests on the night included Genesis Homes, Hollins Homes, Mansion House Group, Britannia Group and Hall & Co Property.

John McKeon, HGP Investment Director: “It was great to spend time with our partners in a more social setting and very fitting to share the evening with them given the full role they have played in HGP’s recognition at the event. We look forward to continuing to support their growth and finding new opportunities to fund residential delivery across the region.”

To find out more about the Housing Growth Partnership please send us an email at info@housinggrowth.com