CBRE Investment Management (“CBRE IM”) has secured two new LGPS investors for its UK Affordable Housing Fund (“AHF”). Tyne and Wear Pension Fund and Scottish Borders Council Pension Fund bring the total number of LGPS subscribers to nine, with 23 investors overall and total equity commitments of over £500m.
AHF invests in social and affordable rented housing and affordable-ownership properties delivering measurable social outcomes. It was one of the first UK unlisted funds to bring institutional client capital into affordable housing to deliver social impact. The Fund has a pipeline of c. £400m of schemes both in development and completed. These are anticipated to provide in excess 2,098 homes, potentially housing in excess of 5,600 people.
To date, AHF has invested institutional capital for the provision of affordable homes in some of the most deprived areas of the UK, helping drive economic renewal and the levelling up agenda with over half the fund invested in projects in some of the most deprived areas in the UK and affordable to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.
Andrew Davey, Head of Liability Aware Strategies UK and Fund Manager for AHF at CBRE Investment Management, said: “AHF offers investors the opportunity to access an attractive risk adjusted return whilst achieving their impact goals. Independently audited performance against the funds impact objectives is critical and provides the bedrock of our investment process. Transparency and proven track record of performance against this framework for our investors has been key to the funds’ success thus far.”
Since its inception, AHF has partnered with The Good Economy (TGE) to implement an impact framework to measure and manage social impact, including wider ESG performance, providing accountability and transparency. The impact framework continues to evolve over time, providing the foundation for every acquisition and a benchmark for all fund-level decisions whilst providing investors with an independent annual audit by TGE, providing transparency and avoiding impact or green-washing.
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