Council pension fund invests £30m in Community Housing Fund
written by Bella Palmer
Man GPM’s Community Housing Fund is aiming to raise £400m for new affordable homes in the UK
The Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Fund has invested in Man GPM’s Community Housing Fund, which aims to provide affordable housing for people on median incomes.
Habitare Homes, a newly registered for-profit social housing provider, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Man GPM’s fund.
The Community Housing Fund is aiming to raise £400m to accelerate the provision of new affordable homes in the UK and has already received £20m from Homes England, as well as investment from Swansea and Strathclyde’s local government pension schemes.
Man Group has also invested £10m of its own cash.
Man Group, which has $127bn worth of assets under management (AUM), follows in the steps of Legal & General, Blackstone-backed Sage Housing and M&G Investments in registering a for-profit provider.
Phil Triggs, director of treasury and pensions at Hammersmith & Fulham Council (LBHF), said: The pension fund committee members of the Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Fund have long been conscious of their role of ensuring excellent environmental, social and governance behaviours for the diversified portfolio of investments.
LBHF’s commitment to the Man GPM Responsible Investment Community Housing Fund marks its first impact-focused real estate investment, and we are pleased to be at the forefront of a relatively new market, working with a manager who is focused on adding to the domestic housing stock while delivering an inflation-linked long-term return, he said.
Shamez Alibhai, head of community housing and portfolio manager at Man GPM, said: LBHF’s investment is further evidence of strong appetite from institutional investors for opportunities within residential real estate and its ability as an asset class seeking to deliver long-term sustainable financial returns.
He said: Our investment strategy is based on ensuring affordability and accelerating the delivery of new homes in the communities in which we invest.
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