Schroders Capital and its partner Civitas Investment Management have announced the third and final closing of their Social Supported Housing Fund (SoHo) with aggregate equity commitments of £192 mln (€224 mln).
The capital for this private, UK, closed-end limited partnership was raised from investors located in the UK, US and Singapore. Investors included public and private pension funds, insurance companies, charitable foundations and family offices, with several contributing from specific impact investment allocations.
Robin Hubbard, head of real estate capital at Schroders, commented: 'We are delighted to have raised almost £200 mln for Schroders’ first social impact real estate development strategy.
'This follows on from the successful IPO of the Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust PLC in the public market at the end of last year. With leverage the Fund will have over £300 mln of capital to invest of which more than £150m is already invested or committed to projects.'
The fund’s social impact strategy plans to help alleviate a pressing social issue in the UK by contributing exclusively to the supply of newly built social supported housing to ease the considerable shortfall in the provision of these properties.
The strategy will forward-fund the development of new specialist supported housing units in the UK, purpose-built to provide safe homes for adults with significant physical and mental health conditions.
CIM is a leading impact investment manager with £2.5 bn of committed capital exclusively devoted to social impact projects.
In the SoHo strategy, CIM oversees the development of the properties, drawing on its extensive in-depth experience of providing high-quality supported housing for vulnerable adults with significant care needs.
Planning consent is secured ahead of any investment and assets are pre-let on a long-term basis with specialist housing associations and designed for the long-term provision of bespoke adapted homes. Funding is sourced ultimately from central government as part of the commitment to support vulnerable adults to live within their own communities.
Andrew Dawber, group director at Civitas Investment Management, commented: 'This final closing is a major milestone for CIM’s partnership with Schroders.
'SoHo’s prime objective is creating new specialist property supply for some of the most vulnerable individuals in society and with 11 schemes already operational and another 50 in the pipeline, the Fund looks set to generate genuine ‘additionality’, alongside an attractive risk-adjusted return.'
