In September 2020, investment company, EQT Exeter and Sigma Capital Group, a residential development and urban regeneration specialist, launched a new joint venture to build affordable high-quality and well-located apartments in Greater London and its commuter towns.

The joint venture, named “Saturn”, delivers buildings with strong sustainability credentials: where possible the homes tap into local community heating networks and utilise photovoltaic solar panels. Saturn will also promote sustainable living practices – the developments will, for example, include ample cycle storage and will typically be located near green outdoor areas.

Saturn has an initial capacity for an investment portfolio of approximately 3,000 homes, with a total value of over £1 billion. The homes are operated under Sigma Capital’s well-established brand “Simple Life London” and are offered at affordable rent specific to each location’s average household income.

After agreeing an initial £150 million debt package with NatWest and Leumi UK in February 2022, the NatWest team sourced further liquidity by introducing Allied Irish Bank and Dutch-bank, NIBC to the lender group who agreed to provide further development finance, alongside NatWest and Leumi UK - bringing the total funding for EQT and Sigma Capital’s build-to-rent housing project to £285 million.

Peter Shacalis, Managing Director at EQT Exeter, said: “EQT Exeter is very pleased to have secured further funding which will help us to build affordable rental homes in London. We are delighted with our financing solution, which was designed to be scalable and help us to achieve our longer-term business plan and strategy.”

Graham Barnet, CEO at Sigma Capital, added: “We are delighted to further expand our delivery of new rental homes, and we thank NatWest and the other institutions within the lending group for supporting organisations such as ours looking to deliver significant social impact by providing housing to renters in affordable locations as well as offering community services within Greater London and its commuter towns.”

Lee Franklin, Structured Real Estate Finance, NatWest, commented on the facility: “We are pleased to have sourced additional debt liquidity for ‘Saturn’ to continue to support EQT Exeter and Sigma Capital, deliver much-needed homes across Greater London, wholly consistent with the NatWest ethos of purposeful lending. We look forward to working with the teams at AIB and NIBC alongside our existing lending partner, Leumi UK”