The Family Building Society is backing a company that supports the development of affordable and social housing for rent.
It has invested £10m alongside Swiss investment bank UBS and Aberdeen Investments in a fund run by Matter Real Estate which aims to self-develop or back joint ventures in building new homes across the UK for families including those of key workers.
The fund’s aim is to finance the building of over 6,500 flats and houses, 3,700 of which are already under construction.
Matter Real Estate has already backed residential developments in Leeds, Sheffield and a regeneration of a cluster of streets in Liverpool.
Mark Bogard, chief executive at the society, said: “We see this as part of our social obligations to help families find affordable homes, as well as having the potential to generate an attractive return for our members.
“In Liverpool, for example, developers backed by the fund have bought up old derelict streets of terrace houses, brought them up to a high standard, and then successfully rented them out, positively changing the character of these streets.
“We at Family Building Society have long had a partnership with a private developer in London to do exactly that as we believe involving private equity in the refurbishing or repurposing old residential buildings as well as new build is an innovative way of helping solve the housing crisis.
“With the Government struggling to reach its target of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament it is fresh ideas such as this which the housebuilding industry as a whole should be considering.”
