Sancus enters social housing lending scene
Alex Bodie has been appointed social housing director at the property financier, which is targeting for-profit housing associations looking for bridging loans of anywhere from £300,000 to £20m+.
Bodie is based out of Sancus Lending’s new Manchester office off Cross Street. He brings with him more than 25 years of experience, having worked at CitiFinancial, Lloyds Banking Group, Premier Asset Finance.
He joined the London-based Sancus from Together, where he launched the dedicated social housing lending division.
Bodie has big ambitions for Sancus’ social housing offering. At the moment, The Somerston Group-backed company is only offering bridging finance to social housing associations. Within five years he hopes to expand that to development finance and term funding.
Already, Bodie said he has been in talks with 10 for-profit housing associations since starting his role
Focusing on for-profit housing associations enables Sancus to fill a gap in the market, Bodie told Place North West. Especially when it comes to those looking to acquire smaller schemes from developers – those of under 20 homes, per se.
“The big not-for-profit housing associations are all taken care of by the banks and they go for the big schemes,” he continued.
“But some of these smaller schemes, the 5, 10, 15 properties – they’re not interested in them because they’re too small,” Bodie said.
“That feels like there’s a gap in the funding market and that’s the bit that we’re trying to fill.”
Elaborating on for-profit housing associations, Bodie said: “There’s a slug of about 20-25 that have got capital to scale, a commercial board, no historic legacy stock issues of old properties that are going wrong or that are draining their funds – and they want to build. They want some of these schemes.
“That’s the bit that we found everybody had forgotten about and that’s the bit that we’re trying to fund initially, just to grow our proposition.”
Bodie entered the social housing lending scene after he was approached by a registered provider for a loan. At the time, the company he worked for said they did not work with social housing providers because it was complicated, Bodie recalled.
So he started doing his own research, which led him “down millions of rabbit holes”.
“I spoke to the regulator, social housing lawyers, social housing valuers, and really started to try and get an idea of the nuances of social housing,” Bodie said. “There was such a massive demand for it and such gaps in the market that it just almost engulfed me.”
It is about more than just filling a gap for Bodie, however.
“When you do a loan for a social housing provider, it feels good. You’re doing a loan. You’re making a difference,” he said.
“There’s a real opportunity here to do something that makes you feel a bit good and actually you’re giving something back,” Bodie added later. “You’re helping solve the problem by getting some more properties built and funded.”
Bodie’s expertise is the reason Alex Garland, commercial director at Sancus, brought him on board.
“We are thrilled that Alex has joined Sancus – having worked with him previously for over five years, I have seen firsthand his genuine passion for the social housing sector and its fundamental importance to the UK housing market,” Garland said.
“He is an industry expert in this field, a consummate professional who is highly motivated to succeed, so the opportunity for him to come aboard and lead our social housing proposition has aligned perfectly as we enter our next phase of growth at Sancus.”
Bodie echoed Garland in teasing Sancus’ future growth.
“We’re small, but we have big plans and big vision – and some brilliant people here,” Bodie said.
