EDITOR’S COMMENT If you’re an avid listener of EG’s We’re Still Here podcast, you’ll know that I can never resist the opportunity to say just “one more thing”.
And while this week EG is being brought to you only in digital format, I was inspired to say just “one more thing” before taking a little break before a new year.
This week, not one, not even two, but three stories reminded me of the positive power of real estate and the influence that it can have on changing people’s lives for the better.
Home REIT, one of but a few successful real estate IPOs this year, is close to investing all of the capital it raised by creating a portfolio that not only provides returns to investors but does some good for society and does its bit to try and solve one of our greatest problems: homelessness.
The REIT this week announced that it had invested a further £64m of its funds in expanding its portfolio of homes to house the homeless to 315 properties. The business, which launched in October, now provides accommodation to 1,700 vulnerable homeless people.
By my, not always brilliant, calculations I make that beds provided for 24 homeless people a day since its first day of trading in October. That’s 24 lives potentially saved, every single day. Which is not a bad return on investment.
The REIT has spent almost 50% of the cash it raised at IPO already and expects to be fully invested reasonably soon into 2021, with its sights set on building a £1bn portfolio within the next five years. Why? Because it can and because it should.
“Seeing the homeless problem in the UK, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, is abhorrent,” Jamie Beale, partner at Home REIT’s investment adviser Alvarium, told EG last month. “There is no reason why we and others can’t use private capital to do social good while also delivering sensible returns to investors.”
And others are. Keith Breslauer, managing director of Patron Capital, has been impact investing for years. He’s passionate about it. It is in his blood. He believes in it.
“I believe I was put on the earth to do something different,” he told us back May. “That’s what I have tried to do with the business and that’s what my team has been really great at helping me do.”
Patron recently launched the Women in Safe Homes fund, an investment vehicle with the aim of providing affordable homes for women who are homeless, survivors of domestic abuse, or ex-offenders and this week it secured its first £15m of investment, including some from Breslauer’s own pocket.
“The case for impact investing has never been more relevant than it is right now, with the pandemic both exacerbating and shining a light on the societal issues that vehicles such as the Women in Safe Homes fund can look to address,” explains Breslauer. “Societal impact and the potential to change the world around us are key to my own personal philosophy on life.”
Investing alongside Breslauer are impact investor Big Society Capital and two US-based trusts – the MacArthur Foundation and the Lostand Foundation.
The ultimate aim for the WISH fund is to raise £100m to provide 650 homes for vulnerable women.
And then, just as I thought I’d used all my Christmas wishes up, Cheyne Capital revealed that it was pumping £10m through its social impact fund into a charity that provides accommodation for people with learning difficulties.
The investment in the Thera Trust will enable it to buy accommodation to home 180 individuals. It is an investment that Cheyne has taken to heart. The firm has been working with the charity for five years and is now seeing the fruits of its labour.
An impact study by King’s College revealed how the investment was having a “real impact on individual lives”. It is a statement that provides ample returns to Cheyne, filling it with pride, according to co-founder and president Stuart Fiertz, but it is also an investment that has provided real financial returns to investors.
“This is a prime example of the results that can be achieved when charitable or social sector institutions and private capital work together to provide solutions for those that need them most,” says Cheyne managing partner Ravi Stickney.
And what could be a more festive send-off than that. The unstoppable power that real estate has to deliver change to real people’s lives.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
