Riverside secures £250m boost for estate improvements

Cladding remediation and retrofit initiatives are on the agenda for the housing association, with the latest bond supporting its efforts to upgrade its portfolio of 75,700 homes.

The money comes from a successful deal roadshow – a move that saw Riverside Group meet with more than 30 investors and receive nearly £1bn in offers. The bond, which has been supplied by a group of unnamed investors, will be repaid over 25 years at a coupon rate of 6.63%.

“We’re extremely pleased we achieved strong investor appetite, reflected in the pricing we achieved considering the challenges within the operating environment,” said Paul Dolan, chief executive of Riverside.

“With almost £1bn of offers on the table at the peak and finishing with an orderbook of more than 2.5 times, it’s clear that investors share in our purpose and are placing their trust in us.”

Barclays and Lloyds were the joint bookrunners on the deal, with Devonshires acting as legal support for Riverside. Addleshaw Goddard acted for the bookrunners. JLL valued the security of the deal.

Deutsche Bank is the agency services provider on the bond. Natwest aided the deal with interest rate hedging support.

The money will go towards Riverside’s cladding remediation programme, which is due to complete in 2028. Funds will also support the housing association’s push to upgrade more than 4,000 homes and bring them up to EPC C by 2030. The retrofit programme is also funded, in part, through the successful £36m award from the government’s Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 initiative.

This latest funding success story follows a strong annual report for Riverside. The group boasted £686m in turnover for the financial year ending 31 March 2025 – up from £647.5m the previous year. Helping those numbers was a 7.7% increase in rent, which increased by operating surplus on social housing lettings by £12.1m.

Riverside reported an overall operating margin of 15.7%. That same figure had been 10.7% the previous year.

Alongside its efforts to improve its existing estate, Riverside is consistently adding to its stock. The group built 980 homes during this past financial year, of which 60% are affordable.

Riverside’s current pipeline includes 130 homes off Sandbrook Road in Ainsdale. Developed in conjunction with Sefton Council and Homes England, the £33m project includes 110 affordable rental properties and 20 shared ownership ones. Countryside is the main contractor for that scheme, which is set to complete in 2026.

Work is set to start this summer on Riverside’s regeneration of The Uplands in Runcorn, a development that includes the building of 257 homes.

Riverside has been operating affordable homes since its founding in Liverpool in 1928. The group initiated a merger with London-based One Housing Group in December 2021.