Capitalism’s Rehabilitation Starts With Your Home
Fund managers have spotted a way to secure long-term income, and plug a chronic housing shortage. What's not to like?
There’s no place like home.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg.
James Brokenshire, the U.K.’s housing minister, wants to let people raid their pension savings to fund a deposit on their first home. That’s clearly not the answer to the country’s housing crisis. But the asset management industry has spied an opportunity to secure long-term income, help plug the housing gap, and even burnish its social responsibility credentials.
The first tenants are poised to take up residence in an award-winning project in Bristol, where about half of the homes have been funded by London-based investment firm Cheyne Capital’s Social Property Impact Fund. In January, CBRE Global Investors attracted an initial 250 million pounds ($318 million) for its open-ended social and affordable housing fund. And Man Group Plc, the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund, has just started seeking investors for its first community housing fund.