Long Harbour Secures £66.8M Commercial Real Estate Financing from Barclays for Single Family Housing Fund
Long Harbour has secured a £66.8 million debt facility from Barclays to support the expansion of its Single Family Housing Fund. The facility provides flexible, scalable funding to support real estate development and acquisition activities across the UK housing market.
The debt facility allows Long Harbour to fund development costs for current and pipeline schemes on a pari passu basis, with Barclays's initial commitments totaling £66.8 million to cover the first two completed transactions. The structure provides the option to extend the size of the loan based on future acquisitions.
Real Estate Acquisition Strategy and Fund Scale
The Single Family Housing Fund secured a £300 million seed equity commitment from South Korea's National Pension Service and has a target size of £1.2 billion over the next 18 months. The fund's strategy focuses on acquiring new-build family homes across the UK, with a focus on South and South East England.
To date, the fund has committed to over £180 million of acquisitions and identified a further £100 million of opportunities, having already funded over 450 homes since inception. The fund's first deal was the forward funding of 105 homes in Newhall, followed by the acquisition of 369 rental homes from Dandara in Horsham and Great Dunmow and Miller Homes in Kent.
Real Estate Development Focus and Market Positioning
Through the Single Family Housing Fund, Long Harbour is looking to bring both domestic and international investment to the UK housing market, where build-to-rent is playing an increasing role in an environment of high interest rates. All investments will bring forward rental homes in well-connected areas experiencing structural housing shortages and increasing demand.
Jack Spearman, Managing Director of Single Family Housing at Long Harbour, said scaling the portfolio and meeting deployment targets requires well-structured debt funding that can support forward funding for investments. "The option to extend the size on the loan with Barclays based on future acquisitions gives us flexibility while we focus on identifying the best opportunities in the market," Spearman said. "We see a huge opportunity for overseas investors to gain exposure to this high growth market, benefiting from Long Harbour's experience in developing and operating build to rent assets."
Lender Perspective on Commercial Real Estate Financing
Steve Springens, Head of Listed Companies at Barclays, said the bank was delighted to continue supporting Long Harbour in the fund. "Providing the house builders with the confidence to build, and supply rental homes for Long Harbour's tenants is very much needed in the UK," Springens said.
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