Legal & General has provided €120.2m (£100m) of long term debt financing to its affordable housing business. Secured against the income stream of a UK-wide portfolio of high quality operational affordable housing, this represents its first deal to generate attractive matching-adjustment, compliant direct investments from affordable housing for its growing annuity portfolio. A further €210.4m (£175m) of development finance is being provided by a consortium of external investors to support the delivery of its current pipeline of 3,500 homes.
Nigel Wilson, CEO of Legal & General, said: “Legal & General’s continued activity in the affordable housing sector demonstrates our unique ability to create real assets which match our long term pension liabilities, recycling the UK’s hard-earned savings and pensions to support those most in need in society. We have already directly invested over €26.4bn (£22bn) into new homes, urban regeneration, clean energy and transport infrastructure. Bringing in pension fund capital gives us the scope to do even more. This is inclusive capitalism at its best."
Simon Century, Head of Affordable Housing at Legal & General, added: “There is an urgent need to provide stable homes for millions of households on waiting lists. Legal & General is increasingly innovating with how to deploy institutional capital at scale to meet these needs and have a significant long term socio-economic impact. We have made a great start in executing our development programme, which now stands at nearly 3,500 homes all across the country. This investment from Legal & General Retirement will help us further bolster this pipeline.”
