Gresham House Residential Secure Income LP (ReSI LP), a limited partnership investing in affordable housing, has acquired a portfolio of 247 new build shared ownership homes from Swan Housing Association for cash consideration of £38 million. Swan provides affordable homes primarily in the East London and Essex areas. In total, it manages over 11,5000 homes and has 8,000 homes in its development pipeline.

The 247 homes are located in Barking, Basildon and Ilford and the properties will be consisting of one and two-bedroom apartments and two and three-bedroom houses. The homes were all built within the last four years and are fully tenanted with rents linked to RPI +0.5%.

Purpose and future of the new partnership

The ReSI team aims to help tackle the shortage of high-quality, affordable housing in England. The firms are working in partnership with housing associations, local authorities and developers.

Swan Housing will still continue to manage the properties on a 20-year agreement. The acquisition process included a comprehensive resident consultation and ReSI’s Customer Charter will also be applied to the properties, meaning residents receive additional benefits including the ability to staircase in smaller chunks of 1%.

David Orr, chair of ReSI Homes, said: “We are delighted to complete this purchase and have been very impressed by the professional approach of the team at Swan. This is an extremely exciting time for us, because as a for-profit registered provider we are bringing additional institutional investment into the sector. We are passionate about delivering high quality services and playing our part in driving up the standards of shared ownership. Thanks to our significant pipeline and active relationships, we are expecting to close more significant deals in the coming months.”

Geoff Pearce, Swan’s deputy chief executive, commented: “I am really impressed with how the Swan and ReSI teams collaborated so effectively to ensure that this transaction would see the continued delivery of high-quality services to residents whilst ensuring that the deal represents value for money for both parties. This income will allow Swan to continue to deliver on both its ambitious development programme and on improving homes and services for our customers. We see working in partnership with the for-profit RP sector as a key opportunity for Swan to unlock further investment into affordable housing delivery in the future.”

Pearce continued: “We are delighted to be continuing to work with ReSI to manage these homes. Our purpose is to find better ways of doing things so that we can improve lives and communities every day. This transaction is a clear example of how thinking differently we can do just that.”