Posted 24.07.13
The Government has announced a multi-million pound boost to build thousands of new affordable homes across the country.
Sixty-nine different housing associations and developers will each receive a share of £220 million, to deliver almost 14,000 new affordable homes outside London. Work on the new properties will be started by March 2015 and be completed by 2017.
This new funding is part of the expanded £450 million Affordable Housing Guarantees, which will support up to £3.5 billion in government debt guarantees to deliver thousands of new homes.
Of the almost 14,000 homes this money will help deliver, the majority will be available at an affordable rent with 2,000 of those available to buy through shared ownership.
Posted 05.07.13
Saffron Housing Trust has initially raised £75 million to support its growth and development in building and acquiring new homes, through the issue of a listed sterling bond which has been bought by a new investor in the Housing Sector.
Saffron embarked on the fundraising in February 2013 and pitched the opportunity to investors in the UK and the US. This was followed by the decision to issue a listed sterling bond, which was based on the attractiveness of bids from the investors. The issue was oversubscribed and attracted investors from both sides of the Atlantic.
The bond arranged by Canaccord Genuity, has a final maturity of 2048 and a fixed interest rate of 4.641% per cent, a spread over the respective gilt of 112bps. The issue follows a bespoke structure with a number of attractive features primarily part-payment, with £50 million of the issue drawn upfront and a further £25 million drawn in one year's time.
The 5,000-homes landlord obtained an Aa3 Credit Rating from Moody's Investors Service in May 2012, but was downgraded to A2 following Moody's review of the sector in May 2013.
