Aviva invests £72.5m in Peaks & Plains
The Macclesfield-based housing association will use the funds to continue its efforts in managing more than 5,000 homes in the North West and East Midlands.
While Aviva has invested £72.5m in Peaks & Plains Housing Trust, Barclays has also refreshed a £30m revolving credit facility. Savills Financial Consultants helped secure both deals.
The funding deals will aid Peaks & Plains’ development arm, Chalk. The organisation aims to deliver more than 200 homes by 2023 and 500 homes by 2028. This ambition includes the delivery of 67 apartments off Sunderland Street in Macclesfield, a project that was completed in April.
Munawer Shafi, head of structured and private debt at Aviva Investors, explained why social landlords are a good investment.
“Social housing financing not only plays an increasingly vital role in providing affordable homes to communities, we believe it also offers investors attractive risk-adjusted and counter-cyclical returns compared to other sectors,” he said.
“As we continue to build our external client base, there has been a material uptick in the number of those who recognise the power of their investments to do good and create positive social outcomes whilst also capturing financial returns,” Shafi continued.
“The ability of social housing to provide solid cashflows whilst having a positive impact beyond our business and into communities makes it a compelling sector for us to increase our exposure to and to continue our support of.”
In addition to Peaks & Plains, Aviva Investors has also helped fund Wales & West, Coastal, and Settle housing associations since 2020.
Outside of the social housing world, Aviva has committed £100m to Chester-based ITS Technology Group in order to help the group roll out its Faster Britain full-fibre networks.
In July, the investor also announced a £43.5m, eight-year debt facility to Urban Splash to enable the developer to make ESG improvements across the company’s 800,000 sq ft commercial portfolio.
While Aviva has continued to make high-profile investments, the organisation has also put assets up for sale – namely the Manchester Corn Exchange. The Corn Exchange is on the market for £43m.
