Trowers & Hamlins advised Coastline Housing on securing £50m of funding through the Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme.
Based in Cornwall, Coastline Housing is an independent charitable housing association which owns and manages 5,000 homes in the area.
The team successfully assisted Coastline Housing in completing the latest significant funding for the Cornish based charity to lock in a 4.95% fixed interest rate £50million loan providing certainty of costs given rising rates. The structure for this Government funding scheme which is facilitated by ARA Venn lending through its vehicle Saltaire Finance, involves a degree of complexity due to the contingent bond issue pursuant to which Saltaire onlends proceeds to RP borrowers. This requires additional documentation and tight deadlines.
Jasna Djurisic, Managing Associate in Trowers' Banking & Finance team, commented:
"It was good to reach completion to support Coastline's mission to help solve the acute housing crisis in Cornwall and everyone involved in the transaction looks forward to seeing these funds spent to help house the many struggling to afford homes."
Nathan Mallows, Director of Finance, People and Change said:
"It is always a pleasure to work with the Banking team at Trowers. This financing deal complements our successful grant bid with Homes England creating a package of £73 million investment for affordable housing in Cornwall which will see the housing charity building 270 homes at a number of locations throughout Cornwall for people who are in housing need. In order to maximise what Coastline could build with the £22.8 million of grant funding we needed to secure some additional investment. We joined a group of three housing associations nationally to borrow money through the Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme, securing a 30 year £50 million loan. All of this will enable us to build 270 new homes in Cornwall over the next 3 years, some for shared ownership, some for affordable rent and 154 for social rent. This is important because this is a low cost rent that is set by a government formula and is significantly lower than the rate someone would pay in the private market – typically 50-60% of the rents on offer privately in the local area.”
