Gresham House backs £200m eco-housing drive
Gresham House has agreed to fund Ecotek Homes’s £200m sustainable housing drive in urban fringe locations.
The investment manager has agreed an exclusive framework partnership to back an initial portfolio of 1,000 homes in the Midlands and the North West.
The strategy will focus predominantly on single family housing, with an emphasis on build-to-rent and shared ownership tenures. Ecotek will use modern methods of construction and hopes to develop to 5,000 homes over five years.
Gresham House has agreed to fund Ecotek Homes’s £200m sustainable housing drive in urban fringe locations.
The investment manager has agreed an exclusive framework partnership to back an initial portfolio of 1,000 homes in the Midlands and the North West.
The strategy will focus predominantly on single family housing, with an emphasis on build-to-rent and shared ownership tenures. Ecotek will use modern methods of construction and hopes to develop to 5,000 homes over five years.
The homes will use up to 50% less energy than a traditionally built home, through reducing carbon emissions in construction, embodied carbon and operational emissions.
The first development will see 156 homes in the Gamesley area of Glossop, Derbyshire, comprising a mix of build-to-rent, open market sale and affordable houses. Construction has already commenced on site.
Manchester-based Ecotek was started by chief executive Stephen Haigh in 2018. Haigh was previously managing director at Antler Homes, managing director at Gleeson Homes & Regeneration, and executive director of specialist housing at Your Housing Group where he established a £2.5bn modular housing joint venture with WElink Group.
Ecotek assembled a seed portfolio and appointed Avison Young to secure a capital partner at the end of last year.
Haigh said: “Our ethos is based on years of research, experience and a desire to fix the UK’s broken housing market.”
He added that the partners are working “to encourage a culture of innovation, accountability and positive change in the housing sector”.
Gresham House manages a number of investment vehicles targeting housing, including the £300m British Strategic Investment Fund and the Residential Secure Income shared ownership REIT.
Joe Thomas, investment director at Gresham House, said the strategy aims to bring “much-needed consumer choice back to local communities”. Thomas added that Ecotek’s strategy is “clearly aligned with our wider corporate vision to deliver positive financial, social and environmental returns for our customers”.
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