FINANCE: Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has completed a £30m financing deal with Pocket, a private developer of intermediate housing for singles and couples in London.
Pocket, in partnership with the Greater London Authority, said the deal brings together private and public capital to deliver affordable homes for London following a £21.7m loan from the mayor of London.
The 10-year loan was through the mayor’s Housing Covenant, which aims to help working Londoners into home ownership.
The new investment from Lloyds will finance the construction of new Pocket homes on land that the GLA’s loan has helped to unlock.
Pocket builds starter homes for London’s young workforce, helping them get their foot on the housing ladder.
The majority of homes will be in zones 2, 3 and 4, and the first are anticipated to be ready for occupation in 2015. Pocket estimates that over the next 10 years it will invest around £500m in delivering new homes, generating more than 5,000 jobs.
Pocket chief executive Marc Vlessing said: “The bank’s commitment and the agreement with the mayor’s office demonstrates the growing momentum behind Pocket and affirms the pivotal role the company will play in providing affordable housing for London’s hard-working singles and couples who otherwise risk becoming priced out of the housing market.”
Gabrielle Berring, head of real estate, mid markets real estate London, for Lloyds, said: “Pocket’s development programme will provide a much needed boost to the capital’s affordable housing stock and creates investment that will support thousands of jobs over the next decade. It typifies the type of long-term, growth-generative projects that we want to support through new development financing.”
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
