East Midlands landlord borrows £100m under Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme

The AHGS was launched in 2020 and reopened in March with an extra £3bn. The scheme offers lower-cost fixed-rate loans of up to 30 years to registered providers to build affordable housing.

From March this year, for the first time, housing associations could also use the scheme to upgrade their existing homes. Investment manager Venn manages the scheme on behalf of the UK government.

Venn said the loan to NHCA, announced on 9 December, has a 12-year tenor. It was funded by the issuance of £200m of bonds under a new series maturing in December 2036 by Saltaire Finance, the funding vehicle for AHGS.

The £100m loan is the third made to NHCA under the scheme. The interest rate is 4.815%.

The £100m balance of the bond issuance will be retained to fund other successful loan applications currently being processed, Venn said.

Oriane Auzanneau, deputy portfolio manager for AHGS and managing director at Venn, said: “We are very pleased with the issuance outcome for this new 12-year bond, which was launched to support NCHA’s treasury requirements and will offer future borrowers more tenor choices under the scheme.”

Naomi Dobraszczyc, director of finance and resources at NCHA, said the AHGS continued to provide “excellent value for money”.

She added: “For the first time, our existing residents will benefit from this value, because we are funding improvement works to our existing homes alongside the development of new affordable homes.”