North West landlord secures more than £217m in funding

Torus worked with Savills Financial Consultants to secure the deal, with Brabners as its legal advisor. Addleshaw Goddard was legal advisor for the funders.

“This agreement underscores the strong relationship with its funding partners and positions Torus for continued growth and stability,” added Mike Roche, director of Savills Financial Consultants.

Michelle Murray, relationship director at Barclays Corporate, Social Housing, said the financing reinforces the bank’s “commitment to social housing and our desire to help foster the thriving communities that Torus helps support”.

“It’s great to lend £100m to Torus Group, which strengthens our long-term partnership, and ensures much-needed affordable homes are built in the North West of England,” said Martin Skinner, director for housing finance, commercial mid-market, at NatWest.

NatWest recently announced that as of 31 August 2024, it had reached £2.8bn of its goal to lend £5bn to the social housing sector by the end of 2026.

“This funding will facilitate the improvement of existing housing and the continued development of much-needed new affordable homes,” added Darragh O’Keeffe, director, housing finance at Santander UK.

Earlier this year, Torus and developer Castle Green secured planning permission to build 236 affordable homes in Congleton, Cheshire.

The landlord’s latest funding round comes as the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) latest annual Sector Risk Profile has reported that the cost of servicing debt exceeded net earnings across the sector for the first time since 2009.

The RSH said yesterday it is the first time earnings have outstripped debt in this way in about 15 years, as it warned of the sector’s increased viability risks, and its forecast aggregate interest cover dropping to 111%.

Although the sector is “generally resilient”, the RSH believes that many landlords have less capacity and need “more active management from boards”.