Long Harbour has appointed Jack Spearman to lead its single-family housing platform, which will target investing in residential assets across the UK.
Long Harbour’s established property management brand, Way of Life, will be used across the SFH portfolio. The firm has appointed CBRE to support capital raising.
Savills says the UK SFH market is rapidly growing and maturing, predicting that there could be 30,000 SFH homes in operation by 2027, and more than 70,000 by 2032.
Spearman (pictured) joined Long Harbour in 2009 and is a director at the firm, having led the origination and execution team for the UK secured income programme.
Long Harbour will leverage the firm’s strong relationships, having completed more than 1,200 deals with 275 housebuilders, as well as its robust acquisition processes, gained through its secured income programme.
Spearman said: “Our ambition is to create a SFH platform of scale that addresses the undersupply of high-quality, energy-efficient and modern suburban housing in the UK.
“Long Harbour is uniquely positioned to deliver this, with fast transaction capability, an unrivalled track record in private rented sector housing and fantastic housebuilder relationships.”
He added: “Currently, 3m UK rental households live in primarily low-quality, poorly managed suburban homes. This, coupled with growing affordability concerns within the wider housing market and lack of mortgage accessibility, is driving more people into rented homes, either through necessity or due to the flexibility it affords.
“We look forward to playing a role in helping to meet this need and to solving this aspect of the housing crisis, as well as setting a strong ESG benchmark for this emerging sector, particularly from a sustainability perspective.”
William Astor, chief executive of Long Harbour, said: “We are thrilled to have appointed Jack to lead this exciting new investment strategy for Long Harbour as we seek to revolutionise renting for families and professionalise the sector.
“His experience in executing deals in the residential market, strong relationships with many of the UK’s top housebuilders and excellent working relationship with Way of Life, having been a part of our business for more than 10 years, will be a great asset for us as we look to hit the ground running with our SFH platform, which already has a large pipeline under review.”
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