Osborne Clarke has advised Funding Affordable Homes on a £56 million debt refinancing in connection with its UK affordable housing portfolio

Funding Affordable Homes ("FAH") secured a £56 million refinancing with a European bank in connection with a portfolio comprising 768 existing homes across 10 schemes.

The refinancing reduced FAH's interest payments by more than half using an interest rate based on inflation-linked gilt rate aligned with FAH's inflation -linked rents. FAH is a social impact fund which aims to deliver affordable housing throughout the UK whilst also providing stable and progressive returns to its investors. FAH, along with their real estate and investment adviser Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate Investment Management (EdR REIM), intend to further these aims in the coming years by delivering up to 3,000 affordable homes across the UK.

Adrian D’Enrico, fund manager of FAH, said: “This refinancing is a significant milestone for FAH, more than halving our cost of debt and providing a stable base from which to raise and deploy equity into delivering more homes. It reflects the increasing appetite from the banking and investor universe for affordable housing as an asset class. We now aim to raise further equity capital to enable the development of our significant pipeline of new opportunities, which will deliver much-needed homes across the UK”.

The Osborne Clarke team was led by Partner Dominic O'Brien who was assisted by Associate Director Cameron Houston and Associate Lucy Gillespie. The team also included Real Estate Partner Rajindh Mangat assisted by Associate Director Louise Oliver and Senior Associate Emily Bosson. Centrus acted as financial advisors to FAH throughout the transaction, led by Lawrence Gill.

The Osborne Clarke team commented: "We were delighted to have had the opportunity to advise FAH in this important social real estate and finance deal. This will offer FAH the best opportunity to grow their offering within the ever important affordable housing sector, which is the cornerstone of a balanced programme for the delivery of housing to meet the ever increasing demand."