Beehive Affordable Homes has acquired 50 properties from housing association Hyde, which will be leased to the London Borough of Bromley, targeting residents who were previously in temporary accommodation.
Beehive, which is backed by Macquarie Asset Management, bought the homes from Hyde Housing Association and will let them on a long-term basis to Bromley, which can buy them debt free for £1 at the end of the agreement.
The deal represents Beehive’s first venture but the group is already in the process of replicating the model across the country, to help local authorities reduce their reliance on temporary accommodation.
Beehive was founded by Jonathan Bunt and Chris Ashcroft, whose combined senior experience includes local authority finance, affordable housing and investment banking.
Jonathan said: “We are really happy to use our expertise in housing and finance to ensure that these homes stay in the wider affordable housing sector. We have been able to deliver this portfolio of homes at genuinely affordable rates for Bromley residents while paying Hyde a fair open market price for their homes.
“This win-win outcome means Hyde can reinvest into new affordable schemes which are so desperately needed. Our ambition is to help to enable an overall net increase in affordable homes.”
Guy Slocombe, chief investment officer at Hyde, said: “We had identified these homes as suitable for sale some time ago and had recently completed works to all of them to bring them up to a higher standard.
“The main thing for us is that these homes are earmarked for people who were, until recently, in temporary accommodation. They now have a genuinely affordable, long-term home, and the fact that they can move in during the global pandemic makes it that much more special.
“We select homes for sale based on a number of different factors and reinvest the proceeds into building more affordable homes that the South East desperately needs.”
Gareth Edwards, senior vice-president at Macquarie, said: “We are delighted to have played a key role in this important transaction, demonstrating the alternative funding models available to local authorities to help finance their social infrastructure investment needs.
“This commitment underlines our desire to finance the UK affordable housing sector and local authorities, with approximately £700m invested in these sectors on behalf of our clients over the past five years.”
For further coverage on Beehive’s deal please see the links below:
Inside Housing – https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/new-organisation-teams-up-with-global-asset-manager-to-acquire-50-homes-from-hyde-70371
Social Housing – https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/news/macquarie-funded-firm-eyes-more-acquisitions-after-debut-deal-with-hyde-70427
Housing Digital – https://housingdigital.co.uk/hyde-beehive-and-london-borough-of-bromley-deliver-affordable-homes-in-south-east-london/
