Thriving seeks to raise £2bn for PRS and affordable housing funds

ESG-focused fund manager Thriving Investments is seeking to raise £2bn for its private rental sector and affordable housing funds. It is also planning to ramp up its strategies with more for-profit housing provider acquisitions and housing association partnerships. The fund manager – formerly PfP Capital – is aiming to grow commitments to its flagship PRS platform Picture Living to £1bn, while expanding its affordable housing fund to £1bn. Thriving told EG it is looking to secure equity from long-term patient capital such as local authority pension funds. It also intends to acquire for-profit registered providers and their portfolios to reach its target to deliver 20,000 homes in the next decade, which would mainly consist of single-family homes. Last month, Thriving’s parent company, Places for People bought for-profit provider Rosewood Housing from FRP, the administrator for Inland Homes. Thriving will manage repairs in the properties before transferring them to PfP’s property management arm Touchstone. Partnership deals with housing associations are also sought for value-add opportunities, with the housing associations continuing to operate acquired portfolios. The partnership model targets schemes or portfolios comprising 30 to 80-plus homes. Last month, the Scottish National Investment Bank upped its investment in the New Avenue Living fund, Thriving’s Scotland-focused fund, to £60m.  The fund, which has a mandate to build 1,500 energy-efficient homes close to major Scottish city centres, has delivered 649 homes with another 422 in development. John Tatham, finance and investment director at Thriving, said the company is “looking to replicate the (New Avenue Living fund) model to Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and the West Midlands” through individual and portfolio transactions. Tatham said: “We see so many portfolios for £100m, but it is a fraction of the effort to do £100m of £25m deals. Our process is relatively new, so we have tried to make it quick. “We can do smaller deals that the big investors will not even get out of bed for, we did a £6m deal, we will look at £20m-30m. We also did a £50m portfolio deal – in terms of the £100m deals, the big guys are all fighting for that whenever they do come out.” In February, EG revealed that Thriving gained a further £100m equity commitment from Universities Superannuation Scheme for Picture Living, its flagship private rented sector strategy. Image from Thriving Investments/FTI Consulting