UK: Developer and operator Long Harbour has announced the launch of a dedicated platform to invest in single family housing (SFR).
Jack Spearman, who has been a partner at Long Harbour since 2009, will head up the new SFR arm. It will target investing in residential assets across the UK. Long Harbour’s established property management brand, Way of Life, will be used across the single family portfolio. Long Harbour has appointed CBRE to support capital raising.
According to Savills, the UK SFH market is rapidly growing and maturing, predicting that there could be 30,000 SFH homes in operation by 2027 and more than 70,000 by 2032. The launch of a dedicated SFH platform is a logical step for Long Harbour, bringing to this nascent market the experience gained from over ten years of experience and success across its multi-family residential and secured income strategies.
Spearman said: “Our ambition is to create a SFH platform of scale that addresses the undersupply of high quality, energy efficient and modern, suburban housing in the UK. Long Harbour is uniquely positioned to deliver this with fast transaction capability, an unrivalled track-record in private rental sector housing and fantastic housebuilder relationships.”
“Currently three million UK rental households live in primarily low quality poorly managed suburban homes. This, coupled with growing affordability concerns within the wider housing market and lack of mortgage accessibility, is driving more people into rented homes, either through necessity or due to the flexibility it affords. We look forward to playing a role in helping to meet this need and to solving this aspect of the housing crisis, as well as set a strong ESG benchmark for this emerging sector, particularly from a sustainability perspective,” he added.
The new platform will seek to mirror the success of the firm’s Long Harbour Multi Family (LHMF) investment vehicle.
In August 2021, Long Harbour secured a £650 million cash injection for its multi-family investment programme, bringing together international investors Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) and Cadillac Fairview (CF), the real estate arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, to create a £1.5 billion platform.
