Hyde, London Borough of Bromley, Beehive Affordable Homes, Macquarie Asset Management deliver 50 affordable homes in south-east London

Hyde, the London Borough of Bromley, Beehive Affordable Homes and Macquarie Asset Management have completed a transaction that delivers 50 affordable homes for rent in south-east London.

The properties, which Beehive acquired from Hyde with financing provided by Macquarie, are a mixture of sizes and are located across the London Borough of Bromley and the surrounding areas. The London Borough of Bromley has agreed to rent the properties from Beehive on a long-term basis to help meet local affordable housing needs with an option to acquire them for £1 at the end of the agreement.

Speaking of the sale of the homes to Beehive, Guy Slocombe, Chief Investment Officer at the Hyde Group said: “We had identified these homes as suitable for sale some time ago and had recently completed works to all of them to bring them up to a higher standard. The main thing for us is that these homes are earmarked for people who were, until recently, in temporary accommodation. They now have a genuinely affordable, long-term home, and the fact that they can move in during the global pandemic makes it that much more special.

“We select homes for sale based on a number of different factors and reinvest the proceeds into building more affordable homes that the south-east desperately needs.”  

Beehive was set up by Jonathan Bunt and Chris Ashcroft to make use of their respective backgrounds in local government, housing, banking and markets to help bridge the gap between housing associations who are looking to sell some of their homes and the growing demand from local authorities to house people in long-term, affordable accommodation.

Beehive Director, Jonathan Bunt said: “We are really happy to use our expertise in housing and finance to ensure that these homes stay in the wider affordable housing sector. We have been able to deliver this portfolio of homes at genuinely affordable rates for Bromley residents whilst also paying Hyde a fair price for their homes. This win-win outcome means Hyde can reinvest into new affordable schemes which are so desperately needed. Our ambition is to help to enable an overall net increase in affordable homes.”

Beehive partnered with Macquarie Asset Management’s Private Credit team to facilitate the innovative transaction, with Macquarie investing on behalf of its institutional clients to provide a flexible, long term financing package. Beehive and Macquarie intend to replicate the model across the country, working closely with local authorities to help meet their affordable housing needs.  

Gareth Edwards, Senior Vice President at Macquarie, said: “We are delighted to have played a key role in this important transaction, demonstrating the alternative funding models available to local authorities to help finance their social infrastructure investment needs. This commitment underlines our desire to finance the UK affordable housing sector and local authorities, with approximately £700 million invested in these sectors on behalf of our clients over the past five years.”

Hyde were advised by Trowers & Hamlin, Macquarie by Addleshaw Goddard and Beehive by K&L Gates.

For more information, please contact:

Hyde Group

Di Merwood
07918 057874
di.merwood@hyde-housing.co.uk

Beehive Affordable Homes

Jonathan Bunt
+44 7809 548833
Jonathan@beehiveaffordablehomes.co.uk      

Chris Ashcroft
+44 7812 996610
Chris@beehiveaffordablehomes.co.uk    

About the Hyde Group

The Hyde Group was established in 1967 to provide homes for those left behind by the market. We are an award-winning provider of homes, combining social purpose with entrepreneurial drive and professionalism.

Hyde is one of the largest housing associations working in England, owning or managing circa 50,000 homes in London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, the East of England and East Midlands. This means that more than 100,000 residents have a home at a price at which they can afford, with long tenancies that give them the chance to improve their life chances.

The homes that we build, as well as the ones we already own, include those for shared ownership, for social rent, for outright sale and for private rent. Hyde Housing Association is a not-for-profit organisation but our family of companies, which makes up the Hyde Group, includes charities and profit-making subsidiaries.

Housing associations were set up to support people in housing need and this remains at the heart of everything we do today.  We’re independent, charitable organisations and all the money we make is reinvested in building more affordable homes and delivering services for our residents.

To find out more about the Hyde Group visit www.hyde-housing.co.uk.

About Beehive Affordable Homes

Beehive Affordable Homes (Beehive) bridges the gap between housing associations with surplus homes and local authorities with homelessness pressures. Beehive buys geographically disparate, surplus homes and packages them into meaningful portfolios that are immediately viable at affordable rents for individual local authorities.

Beehive donates a proportion of its annual profits to charities that work to combat homelessness in the UK.