BlackRock Real Assets’ European infrastructure debt business has made its third UK social housing debt investment with the provision of a £75m (€84.2m) financing to GreenSquare.
The investment manager said it has agreed the deal with GreenSquare, on behalf of its clients.
GreenSquare has over 11,500 social housing properties throughout Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire in the UK. This debt transaction is secured against existing social housing stock.
While secured by existing social housing stock, this debt financing also allows GreenSquare to build new homes in a market impacted by shortages in affordable housing, BlackRock said.
The investment with GreenSquare is BlackRock’s third investment in the UK social housing sector, bringing its total invested capital in the sector to £250m across the platform.
BlackRock previously financed Trafford Housing Trust and Wheatley Housing Group in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
This deal brings the European infrastructure debt team’s total debt portfolio to over £1.6bn.
Jonathan Stevens, the head of European Infrastructure Debt at BlackRock, said: “We are delighted to have made this investment on behalf of our institutional clients.
“The transaction provides efficient financing to GreenSquare while providing our clients with access to inherently stable long-term cash flows and seeks to achieve their ESG investment objectives.”
Scott Murray, the finance director of GreenSquare, said: “This is another hugely significant step to fund GreenSquare’s strategy to develop and provide more homes and to maintain its financial strength.
”The BlackRock funding is important because it removes the hurdles that were in place for financing GreenSquare Homes.”
