Stonewater has secured £50m of 30-year funding from Affordable Housing Finance plc (AHF). The funding will help finance Stonewater’s affordable housebuilding programme which aims to deliver 2,765 new affordable homes over the next four years.
The agreement was signed in two parts, providing £25m on 17 October 2017 and £25m on 16 November 2017. The borrowing benefits from the guarantee by the Government under the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme.
John Bruton, Stonewater’s Executive Director of Finance, said: “We are delighted to complete this loan. It will contribute to Stonewater building over 600 urgently-needed homes for affordable rent and low-cost shared ownership where they are needed most across the South-west, Midlands and East of England.
“While we also use other sources of finance, the very low interest rate we have secured from AHF means we can do more to meet the huge housing need that exists than if we only had access to commercial loans.”
Piers Williamson, Chief Executive of AHF, added: “We were delighted to be able to source what is now a very scarce resource of EIB funding for Stonewater. The low cost underpins Stonewater’s efficient creation of a large number of badly needed affordable homes in the South and Midlands.”
Stonewater currently owns and manages 31,500 homes in England ranging from affordable properties for general rent, shared ownership and sale, to retirement and supported living schemes, Foyers and women’s refuges. The AHF funding, which follows Stonewater’s £100m Pricoa note issue in July and £250m bond structure (for future issue) in October, significantly boosts the housing organisation’s financial capacity to build more low-cost homes.
