Ilke Homes has raised £60m from investors and Homes England, as it gears up to build 2,000 homes a year.
While £30m of the new funding came from a Homes England loan, the remainder was invested by Sun Capital, the Guinness Partnership, and Ilke’s biggest shareholder, TDR Capital.
Tech-focused family office Middleton Enterprises also contributed to the equity raise. Homes England’s contribution comes from the Home Building Fund and follows a similar loan in 2019.
Ilke will use the money to scale production up to eight homes a day, from current levels of two a day. The modular builder will use the finance to invest in automating processes to reduce manufacturing costs, with better efficiencies. It will also enable Ilke to secure more sites and expand its full development “package deal” – offering sites, infrastructure and homes to investors.
Ilke plans to create 10,000 homes in its Knaresborough factory over the next five years, and has contracts in place to build 3,000.
Harry Swale, chief investment officer at Homes England, said: “Manufacturers like Ilke Homes are vital if developers are to build new, sustainable homes at the pace and scale the country needs. This debt facility from the Home Building Fund shows our commitment in increasing productivity and efficiency in construction to meet government’s housing delivery ambitions.”
Stephen Robertson, founding partner at TDR Capital, added: “The defensive attributes of residential property are attracting unprecedented levels of investment globally, but without a meaningful strategy to build greener, more energy-efficient homes at scale, we have no hope of meeting climate targets.
“Precision-engineering housing will be a critical solution to greening cities, and with housing needs continuing to significantly outstrip supply, we are also confident that this sector is immensely scalable. We believe there is huge potential for multiple other investors to work with us on spearheading this positive change.”
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