Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) is investing £60m (€68.7m) with a south London-based housing association to help the developer fund new homes and refinance existing debt.
PIC, an insurer of defined benefit pension funds, said the debt investment with Phoenix Community Housing has been secured on housing assets.
The investment will enable the not-for-profit resident-led housing association develope over 200 new homes, as well as allowing the refinancing of existing debt and removal of restrictive covenants.
Phoenix currently owns and manages more than 6,000 homes in the Lewisham wards of Bellingham, Whitefoot and Downham, and are now starting to build their first new homes.
Chris Starke, the finance director at Phoenix, said: “We are committed to delivering much needed new homes and working with our residents to enhance our local community area.
”The PIC team were proactive in helping us achieve our aims and flexible in discussions on deferred drawdown. We look forward to working with them as an investment partner.”
Marno Jooste, debt origination manager at PIC, said: “PIC continues to source long-dated, secure cash flows to back our pension liabilities and it has been a pleasure to deal with the team at Phoenix. We are proud to be able to help them develop their social housing stock, whilst at the same time securing the pensions of our policyholders.”
In total PIC has invested over £1bn into UK residential property.
