You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Billionaire property family enters social housing market
The family behind a multibillion-pound property empire has made a dramatic move into the social housing sector by registering one of its companies as a social landlord, Inside Housing can reveal.
William Pears Group, which has a portfolio of thousands of properties across the UK, registered MTD Housing as a social landlord with the regulator in the week before Christmas.
The Pears property empire is overseen by brothers Sir Trevor Pears, David Pears and Mark Pears. The family ranked 41st in last year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated worth of £3.4bn.
The family also has an interest in Telereal Trillium, which describes itself as the largest privately owned property company in the UK, and has a portfolio of 12,000 properties worth £8bn.
Telereal Trillium is ultimately owned by the Bernard Pears 1967 Trust and management, and the William Pears Group has a passive investment of preference shares in a subsidiary of the Telereal Trillium Group.
READ MORE
MTD Housing told Inside Housing that the creation of the housing company was to “reach out to those for whom the private sector is not an affordable option”.
William Pears Group is the latest major private property investor to enter the social housing market.
Last January the world’s largest property investor Blackstone entered the sector through its for-profit provider Sage Housing.
And last week saw real estate giant CBRE Global Investors launch a £250m fund to invest in affordable housing schemes, while Legal & General officially registered its affordable housing arm with the Regulator of Social Housing last month.
MTD Housing is a wholly owned subsidiary of St Ermin’s Property Co Ltd, a company that lists brothers Sir Trevor Pears and Mark Pears as persons with significant control.
A spokesperson for MTD Housing told Inside Housing that it did not have specific acquisition targets and that it would approach the sector “speculatively”.
The spokesperson added that William Pears Group was a “socially responsible landlord” that believed in tenant-focused property management, long-term tenancies, not charging fees and fixing rent for the first two years.
“This desire to reach out to those for whom the private residential market is not an affordable option is one of the key driving forces behind MTD Housing and creates a synergy between [the company’s] residential expertise and philanthropy,” the spokesperson said.
The group is now looking for registered providers to partner with and has bolstered its ranks with industry experts to ensure that the new company complies with regulations governing the social housing sector.
MTD Housing has recruited experts including Peter Hibbert, former assistant chief executive at Network Homes, and social housing professional Neil Ayre.
Mr Hibbert was assistant chief executive at Network Housing Group throughout the late 1990s and is now a director of Affordable Housing Solutions, which offers affordable housing expertise for developers and landowners.
Mr Ayre held the role of interim chief executive at Odu-Dua in 2013 and now runs his own consultancy, which lists Shian Housing Association, the London Borough of Islington and Apna Ghar Housing Association as clients.
Steve Douglas, co-chief executive of consultancy Altair, told Inside Housing that MTD Housing’s addition to the registered providers list confirmed the trend of a new mixed economy of providers – including non-traditional, equity-based companies – being created in the social housing sector.
He said: “It shows that investors are seeing social housing as a safe, long-term investment. Bricks and mortar is always a good long-term investment, and this trend shows investors have now got their heads around, or are getting their heads around, social housing as a good investment.”
