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Former Sage and Home Group director launches new developer to deliver ‘ethical lease-based schemes’

A former Sage and Home Group executive has launched a new organisation that will develop homes on behalf of investors to be leased to “established” social housing providers.

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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Swallowfield Homes will work with investors to deliver schemes that will be leased to “established” social housing providers #UKhousing

Brian Ham has teamed up with developers Colin Peacock and John Parkinson to launch Swallowfield Homes, which will develop and fund affordable homes across a range of tenures.

Under the model, investors will buy development sites, Swallowfield will develop the homes and the homes will then be leased to a housing association or local authority.

The social landlord will manage the homes for the duration of the lease, with the homes then transferred to the landlord at the end of the lease period.

Alternatively, the landlord will have the option to purchase the homes before the lease is up.


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Over the past few years there has been an increase in housing associations leasing the homes they manage from private investors rather than owning them themselves, mainly in the specialist supported housing (SSH) sector.

The regulator has been critical of the use of this model within the SSH sector and has declared number of SSH providers that lease homes from private investors non-compliant.

Swallowfield said it will only work with “established RPs [registered providers] who meet the highest regulatory and viability standards and can demonstrate an excellent credit rating”.

It said doing so will “ensure that the highest customer service standard can be met and that risk can be managed appropriately”.

Before launching this new venture, Mr Ham was director of acquisitions at Sage, the for-profit housing provider backed by US private equity giant Blackstone.

Prior to that he served as executive director of development at 55,000-home landlord Home Group.

Swallowfield said it expects to complete its first deals later this year.

Mr Ham said: “We believe that ethical lease-based schemes are part of the solution to the UK’s housing crisis. “Our model offers a solution for established registered providers and local authorities who want to build affordable homes and investors who want long-term, stable income streams.

“We’ve seen demand for this type of funding increasing exponentially as pension funds put ESG [environmental, social, governance] at the heart of their investment strategy and RPs look to innovate.”

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