Essential worker housing fund set for Greater Manchester

Thriving Investments has launched a £200m Greater Manchester essential worker housing fund. The fund manager, part of Places for People, secured an initial £30m of equity commitments from Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Better Society Capital and Places for People Group. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority also provided an initial £10m loan. The New Avenue Living Greater Manchester Housing Fund will deliver affordable homes for rent in the Greater Manchester area, outside of typical grant-funded or section 106 homes. The homes will be let to essential workers, which Thriving defines as “someone who works in a role that is deemed vital to the day-to-day running of the local community” at a discount, capped at a maximum rental level of 80% to open-market rents. Thriving Investments is targeting a £200m, 1,000-home portfolio over the next three years, through a mix of forward-funding and forward-purchase structures. Touchstone Property Management, the property management business of PfP Group, will manage the completed homes. The fund manager will partner with local SME developers to deliver schemes of between 50-150 homes. The fund is Thriving Investments’ second essential worker rental housing strategy, after its £220m New Avenue Living Fund in Scotland, launched in 2018, that will deliver 1,200 homes for essential workers. It plans to replicate the strategy under the established New Avenue Living platform brand across a number of key regional UK cities at scale. Cath Webster, chief executive at Thriving Investments, said: “Far too many essential workers, who make a huge contribution to the UK economy and society, are struggling to secure long-term, quality, safe housing, which acts as a catalyst to employment, health and education, and is the foundation of strong communities. “This new fund is our first essential worker housing strategy in England and reflects the team’s expertise in finding solutions to the challenge the UK faces in delivering genuinely affordable rental properties, at scale, in critically undersupplied regions. “In the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Better Society Capital and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, we have partners that share our responsible, value-driven investment approach, and their backing is a strong endorsement of our vision to marry institutional capital and public funding via strategic partnerships to help solve the housing crisis. They recognise the uniqueness of our vertically integrated rental housing platform, which enables us to source, fund, develop and manage new homes, and has enabled us to grow our assets under advisory to more than £1bn on behalf of a range of UK pension funds and institutional capital partners.” Paul Dennett, deputy mayor for Greater Manchester and GMCA portfolio lead for Housing First, said: “This fund is a prime example of how we are working together with the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and the private sector to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing our city region: ensuring people have access to safe, decent and genuinely affordable homes. “We know that far too many essential workers, the backbone of our communities, are being priced out of the places they serve. That’s simply not right. “In Greater Manchester, we’ve been clear: housing is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Through bold, innovative partnerships like this, we’re showing how public and private capital can be mobilised to deliver real social impact. By investing in high-quality homes at affordable rents, we’re not just helping key workers find somewhere to live, we’re supporting local jobs, regenerating communities and making sure economic growth works for everyone. “This investment directly supports the government’s ambition to boost housing supply and deliver fairer, more inclusive growth. But here in Greater Manchester, we’re going further – driving forward a vision where housing is about providing security, stability and opportunity for the people who keep our communities running.” Image from PfP