Swiss Life eyes Capital&Centric schemes for resi fund
A platform that will provide an exit route for the developer and allow the investor to enter underinvested residential markets is close to being formalised, Place North West understands.
Swiss Life Asset Management and Capital&Centric’s newly established social impact fund will take control of the developer’s 97-home Farnworth Green project once it has stabilised in the middle of 2025, according to a Bolton Council report seen by Place but since deleted.
The report stated that C&C has “agreed heads of terms with Swiss Life Asset Management to create an impact fund, which will enable C&C and Swiss Life to own and operate Farnworth Green for the long-term future”.
The report added that “the expectation is that the funder will purchase the development six months from practical completion”, which is scheduled for January 2025.
Other schemes that Swiss Life could become involved in through the fund include Weir Mill in Stockport and Eyewitness Works in Sheffield, Place understands.
The idea behind the fund is to target areas with an undersupply of good-quality housing where rents are rising. Swiss Life wants to amass a portfolio of “aspirational housing in underinvested locations”, according to a Swiss Life report from June.
The fund will also provide Capital&Centric with an exit route on various schemes while allowing the developer to manage the assets.
The deployment of institutional capital into a town like Farnworth is a vote of confidence in the outlook for Greater Manchester’s towns. The now-deleted Bolton report describes the deal as a “landmark achievement”.
The sale of assets to Swiss Life will allow the public sector loans accrued to support C&C’s developments paid back. Farnworth Green has been supported by Bolton Council and the GMCA. The largest loan was an £11m debt facility from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund.
The scheme has also been awarded a £9.7m grant from the government’s Future High Streets Fund.
Capital&Centric and Swiss Life declined to comment when contacted by Place.
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