You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Places for People buys regeneration fund
One of the UK’s largest housing associations has bought a regeneration fund described by the United Nations in 2001 as “the world’s first socially responsible property fund”.
Places for People, which owns or manages 195,000 homes across the UK, purchased the assets of the Igloo Regeneration Partnership Fund, managed by Aviva Investors, for an undisclosed fee.
The deal also includes all of Igloo’s joint venture holdings and ongoing property interests. These include 50% of the Blueprint Regeneration Partnership with Nottingham City Council and 50% of a joint venture with Scottish Canals called BIGG Regeneration.
Places for People’s fund management arm, PfP Capital, will act as investment manager, while Igloo will remain development manager.
READ MORE
Chris Jones, managing director at PfP Capital, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to partner with such an experienced team at Igloo and further strengthen our position as a leading responsible real estate fund manager across a variety of housing tenures.
“Igloo shares our commitment to sustainable development and creating lasting, vibrant communities and we look forward to working with them, and the other partners, to deliver these exciting schemes.”
In the past 17 years, Igloo has invested £300m into developments across the UK. One of these partnerships was a custom-built homes joint venture in Cornwall with Homes England.
The now-liquidated outsourcing giant Carillion was also a partner on the scheme, but a spokesperson for Igloo told Inside Housing the project would be completed, as it was underwritten by Igloo.
Peter Connolly, chief executive of Igloo, attended the Number 10 housing summit in October last year.
Mr Connolly said: “We have a strong pipeline of projects and now that the partnership with Places for People is in place, we can accelerate delivery and expand our operations.
“We are now actively seeking further investment so that we can open up more opportunities for development that are for the good of people, place and planet.”
