Thriving Investments and Gresham House Commit £100M with Places for People for 349 Shared Ownership Homes

Thriving Investments, a socially conscious fund manager, and Gresham House, the specialist alternative asset manager, have agreed four transactions worth £100 million with Places for People to fund the development of 349 new shared ownership homes through the affordable housing fund ReSI LP, the firms announced.

The four transactions will deliver homes in Exeter, Devon; Kettering, Northamptonshire; Battle, East Sussex; and Leominster, Herefordshire. The investment equates to approximately £286,500 per funded home, an investment-to-unit calculation rather than a sale price or valuation.

Local Pension Capital Funds Exeter and Leominster Homes

The homes in Exeter and Leominster are being funded by local investment mandates from Devon Pension Fund and Worcestershire and Herefordshire Pension Fund, respectively. The firms said the structure demonstrates how ReSI LP is deploying local government pension capital to address housing need in the communities those funds serve. Thriving Investments described the investment as the latest example of how it provides solutions for local government pension funds to invest in localised, and often critically undersupplied, markets.

The 349 homes will offer households on mid to low incomes a route to home ownership, across a range of one- to four-bedroom properties. More than 96% of the homes will either use clean energy technologies, such as solar panels or air-source heat pumps, or achieve an EPC A rating.

Ben Fry, Fund Director for ReSI LP at Thriving Investments, said: "Shared ownership plays a vital role in providing affordable routes to home ownership. Through ReSI LP, we have now invested more than £438 million of pension fund capital into over 2,300 affordable homes."

He added: "By working in partnership with developers, we can deploy capital where it's needed most, bringing forward much-needed affordable homes that meet local demand, create mixed-tenure communities and alleviate pressure on social housing waiting lists and the private rented sector."

Tim Gardiner, Group Development Director for Places for People Developments, said: "As one of the UK's leading developers for affordable housing, delivering over 2,500 homes last year, our ambition is to create communities that meet the needs of the local area. We know that the best communities are balanced communities, and shared ownership plays an integral role in that."

The Four Schemes: Centurion Place, Tapestry, Goldsmith's Green and Hawthorn Park

Centurion Place, Exeter. The scheme comprises 165 homes in total. Places for People is delivering 82 homes for affordable and social rent, while ReSI LP is funding the development of 83 shared ownership homes. The site is a brownfield redevelopment of a former rail siding within walking distance of Exeter city centre. Places for People started work in summer 2024, and the first phase of homes completed in March 2026. All properties are timber-framed and will be fitted with air-source heat pumps.

Tapestry, Battle. The 200-home development is being delivered in partnership between Rother District Council's Housing Company and Places for People. Places for People will purchase 130 of the homes to deliver as affordable housing, while Rother District Council retains the remaining 70 for open market sale. ReSI LP has contracted with Places for People to acquire 84 shared ownership homes on the site, and the remaining 46 affordable homes will be delivered as affordable rent. The development is within walking distance of Battle town centre and railway station, with connectivity to Hastings and London, and the homes include air-source heat pumps and electric vehicle charging points.

Goldsmith's Green, Kettering. The scheme will deliver 340 affordable homes across three phases, including 154 homes for social and affordable rent and 186 for shared ownership. ReSI LP is committing to fund 96 of the shared ownership homes. Around 6,000 people are on the housing waiting list in North Northamptonshire. The homes are being built using a traditional construction approach, with a mix of one- to four-bedroom properties, and will be delivered to EPC A through the installation of PV panels. The scheme includes sustainable travel initiatives, active travel promotion and investment in local community initiatives.

Hawthorn Park, Leominster. Persimmon Homes is delivering the 353-home development on the former Ministry of Defence site at Barons Cross, close to the A44 and B4529. ReSI LP is providing capital funding to acquire 86 shared ownership homes from Places for People at practical completion, with the homes benefiting from Homes England grant funding. The development will also see investment to support the growth of local schools, transport improvements and community facilities.

The four schemes contain 1,058 homes in total, meaning the ReSI LP-funded shared ownership homes represent roughly 33% of the combined development capacity.

ReSI LP Deployment and Track Record

The transactions follow ReSI LP's £35 million investment in June to fund 160 new-build affordable homes in Cam, Dursley, and an £11 million acquisition in July of a tenanted portfolio of shared ownership homes from a housing association. Including the latest £100 million, ReSI LP's deployment for the year to March 2026 reached £145 million across 625 affordable homes.

Since launching in 2021, ReSI LP has raised approximately £438 million from pension funds, which has been invested in a portfolio of more than 2,300 homes, of which more than 1,300 are completed and occupied by residents.

Market Context: Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing Demand

The investment arrives as demand for affordable housing continues to outstrip supply. Homes England's 2026 investment prospectus states that 1.3 million people are on social-housing waiting lists and nearly 176,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. The affordable-housing sector is described as a market of roughly £500 billion containing approximately 4.5 million homes, with institutional ownership remaining small but growing.

Under the shared ownership model, buyers purchase a share of a home, typically between 10% and 75%, and pay rent on the remaining share. New shared ownership homes represented approximately 11% of all new-build supply in 2024-25, with annual delivery reaching 20,353 homes, up from 11,128 in 2014-15.

Connells Group reported that first-time buyers accounted for 34.4% of all purchases in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 23.5% in 2021. The average monthly cost of a 40% shared ownership equity share was reported at £747, versus £1,089 for a full mortgage and £1,374 for average Great Britain rents.

The Exeter and Leominster mandates also illustrate a place-based approach to pension investment, giving local government pension capital exposure to housing in or near the communities associated with their beneficiaries.

Sources

Thriving Investments press release: https://www.thrivinginvestments.co.uk/news/press-releases/100m-investment-to-deliver-more-than-349-new-shared-ownership-homes/