Cheyne Capital has launched its second social impact real estate fund, Cheyne Impact Real Estate Trust.
An initial £150m has already been raised for the evergreen fund, which will work with councils, housing associations and charities across the UK to provide affordable and keyworker housing as well as supported living facilities, care provision and mixed tenure developments.
The aim of the fund is to create a balanced approach to financial and social return with a view to generating a stable, long-term, inflation-linked dividend while creating positive social outcomes.
Cheyne has an advanced £550m pipeline of investments that could deliver around 3,0000 homes and it is expected that the team will shortly begin executing on some of this.
The new fund aims to build on the success of Cheyne’s previous Social Impact Fund, which was launched in 2014.
Stuart Fiertz, co-founder and president of Cheyne Capital, said: “Having been the first private sector investor to both build and buy impact real estate in the UK, we have seen first-hand how responsible private capital and the public sector can work together to increase the supply of affordable housing and build stronger communities.
“We have spent the past six years building up a broad network and pipeline and have the deep experience to help us continue delivering on our conviction that financial and social returns are not just complementary but will actually lead to superior outcomes over the long term.
“In these unprecedented times, it is more important than ever that we are able to offer our investors access to secure, long-term, inflation-linked cash flows.
Ravi Stickney, head of real estate at Cheyne Capital, added: “The need for affordable housing and best-in-class accommodation for the public social care sector, coupled with the need for tenants to have security of tenure, is more urgent than ever.
“The UK has an estimated five million households in need of housing, yet only 50,000 new affordable homes are being created each year. There is also an acute lack of social care homes serving the public sector on affordable rents. We are proud to be able to increase the supply of genuinely affordable housing and care facilities as a long-term, responsible investor.”
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