Hightown, the Hertfordshire-based landlord, which currently owns 5,300
properties, is offering a fixed term investment via the Retail Charity Bond
platform with a minimum initial subscription of £500, due to mature in October
2027 with a final legal maturity in October 2029.
Interest on the bonds will be payable on 30th April and 31st October
each year, with the first coupon payment due in April 2018.
Hightown became one of the first housing associations to raise
significant finance from retail charity investors in 2015, securing £27.5m; see
more here.
Retail Charity Bonds is a
platform created by social investment charity Allia in association with
investment bank Canaccord Genuity, which has also previously issued debt on
behalf of Golden Lane Housing and Greensleeves Homes Trust.
David Bogle, chief executive of
Hightown, said: ‘This bond offers an ethical investment, a chance for everyone
to invest in our mission to deliver much-needed affordable homes for the
region.’
At the end of 2016/17, the
landlord had an annual turnover of £63m and total fixed assets of £531m.
In May, it secured a
13-year loan of £45m from M&G Investments to help it build 1,200 homes
in the next two years.
Hightown Housing Association Limited (the “Charity”) was
incorporated on 19 July 1967 as Hightown Housing Society
The Charity is the result of a number of mergers of small
housing associations from west Hertfordshire which had been formed in the late
1960s and early 1970s to help address the homeless and affordable housing
problems of that era – problems that had been highlighted by the ‘Cathy Come
Home’ television drama/ documentary.
The principal mergers were between Hightown Housing
Association from Hemel Hempstead and Praetorian Housing Association from St.
Albans in 1995, and between Hightown Praetorian Housing Association and St.
Albans and District Churches Housing Association in 2003.
The Charity has grown considerably since 2003, largely as a
result of an active, new-build development programme, but the Charity has
always been a provider of care and support to vulnerable people as well as a
social landlord.
The Charity currently manages over 5,300 homes and employs
about 670 full time equivalent staff.
As at 31 March 2017, the Charity had an annual turnover of
£63 million and total fixed assets of £531 million.
The Charity aims to be an excellent provider and manager of
housing and support services and to develop high quality new homes to meet the
urgent need for additional affordable housing.
The Charity has three main functional activities:
• It is a social landlord managing over 5,300 units of
housing of which 3,254 are affordable homes for rent, 541 are supported housing
units, 659 are homes for shared ownership, 717 are leasehold homes, 195 are
managed for other entities, eight are nursing bed spaces and 12 are held for
development;
• It is a provider of housing and support to people with
support needs including people with learning disabilities and mental health
problems, young people and homeless people (supporting approximately 820
service users at any one time and providing over 30,000 hours of support a
week); and
• It is an active developer of new affordable housing at a
rate of approximately 350 new homes a year although this figure may be subject
to significant fluctuation upwards or downwards depending on timings and the
usual risks associated with development.
At 31 March 2017 it had 906 units
under development
The Charity will use the proceeds of the issues of the Bonds
for general corporate purposes, including, but not limited to, the development
of new social housing stock.
Find more information here