Homes England to unlock ‘thousands of homes’ in new £250m joint venture with US firm

Los Angeles-headquartered Oaktree, which was founded in 1995, operates globally and currently has $205bn in assets under management, according to its website.

Greycoat Real Estate has invested in and asset managed around £1.3bn worth of new projects since 2012, according to its website.

Peter Denton, chief executive of Homes England, said: “Joining Oaktree’s capital with Greycoat’s development experience, this partnership has the funding, ambition and expertise needed.

“It will help to unlock thousands of homes, offering ready-to-build sites to house builders, whilst ensuring a cohesive approach, creating brilliant places that people want to live in.”

Jon Kenny, director of residential and strategic land at Greycoat, said: “Our mandate is to speed up the delivery of new homes by removing the barriers that slow house builders down.

“The bringing together of Oaktree’s institutional capital and Greycoat’s land-development expertise made possible through Homes England’s support creates a powerful trinity of capability to unlock the complex challenges that stand in the way of delivering the large schemes necessary to deliver the government’s housing ambitions.” 

The groups are aiming to announce the first project next spring.

In November, Homes England approved £124m to fund work that will allow for an additional 16,500 homes to be built on a brownfield L&Q site.

This was followed by news that sector veteran Eamonn Boylan would take over as interim chief executive from Mr Denton, who is stepping down in the new year. Peter Freeman, chair of Homes England, is also stepping down once a replacement has been recruited.