Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s £200m Housing Bank has today opened for business.
The London Housing Bank will offer tailored financial support to speed up the construction of homes relative to existing development timetables.
It will offer low-cost loans starting at 1% interest to encourage development partners to build up to 4,000 homes on a range of sites, with the condition that these homes will be rented to Londoners at low cost rents, with a minimum discount to market of 20%, for at least seven years.
Loans will be available for up to 16 years and after a loan is repaid, developers will have the option of selling the homes to the current occupiers to support home ownership, selling into the market, or retaining the homes as affordable units producing long-term rent.
Johnson said: “Through the pioneering London Housing Bank, I’m challenging the capital’s developers to get building, and deliver the homes Londoners need, as fast as humanly possible.”
Johnson is on track to see 100,000 low-cost homes built over his two terms.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
