LEADING JAPANESE HOMEBUILDER SEKISUI HOUSE IS ENTERING THE UK MARKET IN A COLLABORATION THAT WILL BOOST MUCH-NEEDED HOUSING STOCK.
The move follows a £90m deal with regeneration company Urban Splash and Homes England, the body tasked with funding new affordable housing.
The deal, facilitated by lead real estate and financial advisor JLL, comprises a total new investment of £55m into Urban Splash’s ‘House’ development business, which is expected to deliver thousands of modular homes across England.
Sekisui House has invested £22m of new equity, with £30m of equity and debt funding coming from the government’s Home Building Fund, administered through Homes England. Entrepreneur Noel McKee, founder of We Buy Any Car, has also invested in the new partnership and will take an incremental c 5% stake.
Sir Edward Lister, chair of Homes England, commented: “When Homes England launched last year we said we’d disrupt the housing market to increase the pace of construction. By helping bring one of the world’s largest and most innovative housebuilders to UK shores, we’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
Tom Bloxham MBE, chairman of Urban Splash, said his organisation had targeted Sekisui House because of the company’s “unrivalled global experience in modular construction and shared values and philosophy that we are making homes not units, and a joint belief in the need for a green future.”
“We are incredibly excited about the accelerated production of much-needed homes and evolving traditional practices as we embrace the benefits of innovative offsite construction. I hope it will establish us as the housing partner of choice for landowners – both public and private.”■