Homes England, alongside Greater Manchester Pension Fund, listed
wealth manager Mattioli Woods and other private institutional
investors, have committed £80m to the Initial Close of the
Newstead SME Real Estate Lending Fund (RELF).
The Fund is to be managed by specialist fund manager Newstead
Capital and the intention is to grow the fund to £300m in
subsequent capital raised and deliver £1bn of funding over the
Fund’s lifetime.
The Fund will help to meet Homes England’s mission to accelerate
change in the housing market by bringing in new sources of
institutional capital and diversifying lending channels to the
SME housebuilding sector, whilst enabling the construction of
over 5,000 high-quality, affordably priced, and efficient new
homes throughout England.
Peter Denton, chief executive of Homes England, said: “This
partnership is our latest intervention to offer SME housebuilders
a route to finance that may otherwise be unavailable through
traditional means.
Introducing new sources of institutional capital to support SME
house builders is a priority for Homes England and our
cornerstone investment in this fund signals government support
for accessible and competitive finance to meet the needs of SME
developers across the country.
We look forward to working with our new partners and welcome
further institutional capital to help grow this fund and give SME
housebuilders the helping hand they need to get more quality
homes built in our regions.
By empowering smaller regional housebuilders, the Fund will help
to encourage the creation of sympathetic and environmentally
responsible projects while supporting the regional SME house
building sector and boosting regional job creation.
Councillor Ged Cooney, Chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund,
said: “We are pleased to support the Newstead residential RELF,
which will allow more new homes to be built, by empowering local
SME builders to develop smaller sites, often overlooked by larger
housebuilders.
These new homes will help to address the housing shortage and the
financial return from our investment will enable GMPF to meet its
future pension obligations to its members.
The Fund employs a robust underwriting process overseen by
Newstead, incorporating its own credit, environmental, social and
governance (ESG) metrics and will encourage the development of
sustainable housing by taking new homes’ energy efficiency into
account at the underwriting stage.
Simon Champ, CEO at Newstead Capital, said: “This is an exciting
step for Newstead. Our fund is the first of its kind. We are
providing a conduit for long term institutional investors to gain
access to a market which until now has been out of reach.
The Newstead RELF is aimed exclusively at the unfulfilled need
for capital from regional housebuilders. Regional housebuilding
has historically been critical to the economy, providing the
country with a diverse range of smaller housing communities. The
fund gives pension, insurance, and wealth management institutions
an appropriate long term investment platform to support this
vital industry.
By meeting this demand, we will provide an attractive return for
investors, the taxpayer and Manchester retirees, while also
empowering local SME builders to compete with larger
housebuilders. The Newstead RELF fund will allow more new homes
to be built, tackling the housing shortage and contributing to
levelling up by allowing smaller sites to be developed, with the
associated environmental benefits.
