A £150m (€170.8m) housing investment fund set up last year by the Scottish Government and Places for People Group’s fund management arm has acquired its first assets.
The Mid-Market Rent (MMR) fund bought a site in Paisley for a £7.3m housing development and has also acquired a second site in Edinburgh for a £15.5m development.
The Paisley site will be developed with housebuilder Keepmoat Homes and the Edinburgh site will be developed by Hopefield Partnership and CCG Construction. Rettie & Co acted as the advisors to the fund.
In June last year, The Scottish Government partnered with PfP Capital to create the £150m fund to invest in MMR properties throughout Scotland.
The Scottish Government pledged £47.5m to the fund as part of its commitment to deliver 50,000 affordable homes across the country by 2021.
The fund will also receive an initial £10m capital from Places for People’s Scottish subsidiary Castle Rock Edinvar.
PfP Capital said these two acquisitions mark the first transactions by the fund, adding that further acquisitions are expected in the coming months.
William Kyle, fund director, PfP Capital, said: “Working in partnership with Keepmoat Homes, Hopefield Partnership and the Scottish Government, we are excited to announce these two acquisitions today.
“These projects reaffirm our commitment to delivering affordable homes in Scotland for the community as well as a renewed promise to continue to deploy investor capital where investment is most needed.”
Matthew Benson, Director of Development Services, Rettie & Co. said: “The institutional appetite to invest in well managed, sensibly priced residential accommodation continues to grow.
“The Scottish Government is to be congratulated on bringing this highly innovative and very cost-effective initiative to fruition and we feel confident that it will pave the way for many more similar transactions, considerably increasing Scotland’s supply of affordably priced homes.”
