RediResi is a residential real estate platform for rented and social housing in the UK and Ireland. The firm invests in both build-to-rent in the private sector, as well as buying/refurbishing existing property portfolios to lease back to governmental agencies as social housing stock.
To tackle the housing crisis, the Irish Government’s ‘Rebuilding Ireland’ scheme pledged to deliver 50,000 additional social housing homes by 2021. This total will be partly delivered by identifying 10,000 empty private properties for the Irish Local Government to lease on 20/25 year agreements, to be used only as social housing.
RediResi is supporting this scheme partly funded through a €75million facility from NatWest. ‘Project Red Clover’ aims to deliver over 400 additional social housing properties – all refurbished to high, and energy-efficient standards – to support families in crisis across Ireland get a roof over their heads and enjoy a home they can afford to heat.
The project was recently awarded Finance Dublin’s ‘Deal of the Year’ for Loans and Financing in the category of Social Housing. In addition, Sustainalytics, a provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and analysis, evaluated the loan and provided a second party opinion. This confirms that the projects financed are socially beneficial, in line with use of proceeds market standards for social impact debt and will advance UN Sustainable Development Goals number 1 (“No Poverty”) and 11 (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”).
When it came to financing, RediResi turned to NatWest to structure the facility to meet its bespoke requirements – which included both funding the acquisition of the vacant properties followed by stage drawdowns to fund the various stages of the property refurbishment.
This was an innovative financing transaction in a nascent market. Not only did it provide RediResi with flexibility and certainty that funds were available, but the loan also acted as a bridge to introducing longer-term capital into the Irish Social Housing sector – and offered a new opportunity to pension and insurer-type funders to invest in a sector with real social impact.
“RediResi is committed to being part of the solution to the housing crisis in Ireland. The financing facility provided by NatWest and Alvarium is unique and creative as it allows RediResi the flexibility to acquire, refurbish and rent stabilise on a long-term lease. Above all, the timing of the facility could not be more appropriate.
“We’re really impressed with the way NatWest worked across the organisation to find a solution to meet our needs. The team actually visited the properties for ‘proof of concept’, to truly understand our requirements and support us in achieving confidence and courage from the Irish Government that our project was sustainable for the long term, and that there was a secure funding facility in place – that’s something that’s never happened before in the market, as we understand, and we couldn’t have done it without the support from NatWest.”
- Anuj Gupta, RediResi.
“NatWest was delighted to provide senior debt finance to support RediResi on this highly innovative transaction and to help fund the delivery of additional social housing as part of the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland strategy. Successful delivery of the strategy will create real social impact especially following the potential impact from Covid-19.”
- Alistair Aitken, NatWest
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