John Williams, Head of Property Funds, talks about the award we have recently won and the social impact our Homelessness Property Funds are having.

As you may have read recently, we were delighted to have picked up an award for our Homelessness Property Funds – NatWest Social Business Awards Investment “Deal of the Decade” – in conjunction with Pioneers Post. The award was presented to us at the end of March and was won against some very stiff competition.

Whilst we appreciate receiving awards and it’s always great to be noted by our investment peers and the social enterprise community, more important is that being recognised helps raise awareness of the main issue - tackling homelessness.

The award acts as a thank you for the team at Resonance and St. Mungo’s for all their hard work.  Whether they are creating and managing the fund, working with investors, finding and negotiating to buy suitable properties, ensuring that the refit on the properties are done to the highest standards, or very importantly working with tenants, ensuring they have a place to call home where they can rebuild their lives. Each and every one of the team plays a massively important part.

This award also acts as a thank you to all the investors that have made such a difference with their capital. Investors in the three funds range from Foundations, Local Authorities to Individuals – all entrusting us with their investment capital to help reduce homelessness, which continues to be a major problem throughout the UK.

As I mentioned above, we are not really in business to win awards, we are here to connect capital with social enterprises enabling them to tackle some of the big issues in society. So, whilst we are proud of being recognised, we are most proud of the fact that our three Homelessness Property Funds are currently helping over 1,500 individuals, many of which are families with children, all of whom were either at risk of homelessness or in unsuitable temporary accommodation. Every week we buy and refurbish more properties, which allows St. Mungo’s to help more and more individuals or families have a home and a new start.

These impact investment funds, now exceeding £200 million in invested capital, have shown that it is possible for an institutional grade residential property fund to deliver yield and capital appreciation to investors whilst having a focused impact on the problem of homelessness. These funds are a great portfolio diversifier for institutional investors, and we will be continuing the scaling up and roll out of these funds across the UK.

With over 80,000 individuals in the UK in unsuitable accommodation there is still so much more we can do, that’s why we are continuing to raise investment in our Real Lettings Property Fund2, which will be open for investment until January 2020. This fund currently stands at over c. £100m of funds under management and we are looking to take this to £150m+ this year.

In addition to our three existing funds, we are in the process of launching a new Property Fund, to create homes for those with learning difficulties. The Resonance Learning Disability Property Fund will help make an impact to some of the c. 10,000 people in the UK with a learning disability who are on waiting lists for housing with support.

So, I hope you can see that there is no danger of us resting on our laurels, as there is so much more, we can all do together.

If you would like to know more about our Homelessness Property Funds, including investment opportunities, please get in touch with me.