Four landlords secure 10-year loans as part of £256m government-backed borrowing

The loans are underwritten by the government and can be spent on building social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership homes in England.

Under previous issuances, ARA Venn has offered 30-year loans. 

However, under a new 10-year £350m issuance, the company has been able to offer shorter terms. The interest rate on the new loans is 4.818%. 

Oriane Auzanneau, deputy portfolio manager for AHGS and managing director at ARA Venn, said the new bond series was “developed to support those borrowers expressing a preference for shorter maturities”.

Middlesborough-based Thirteen, which operates around 34,000 homes, has borrowed £100m to help it build around 700 homes. 

Yorkshire Housing has secured £74m, which it said will help it build around 380 new affordable homes. 

NCHA and Watford Community Housing have both previously secured funds through the scheme.

In May last year NCHA, which operates around 10,000 homes, received £55m. In the latest round it has borrowed £50m, which it said will help it develop 1,850 new homes across the East Midlands over the next five years.

Watford Community Housing as taken the remaining share in the latest round. It previously borrowed an undisclosed share of £265m from the scheme’s inaugural fundraising two years ago. 

A total of £93.5m of the latest issuance is being retained to fund other loan applications “currently being processed”, ARA Venn said. 

The AHGS is the result of an announcement in the 2019 Budget by then-chancellor Philip Hammond to bring back government guarantees for housing association borrowing after a decision by his predecessor George Osborne to scrap them.

ARA Venn was chosen in 2020 to run the AHGS ahead of the scheme’s previous provider, The Housing Finance Corporation. Other bidders included GB Social Housing and MORhomes.