Lambeth walk: Local authority steps up to be first investor in LCIV UK Housing Fund

Lambeth is the first local authority to commit investment into the London CIV UK Housing Fund.

The Housing Fund has an open-ended structure and will focus on increasing the supply of good quality, affordable housing within the UK.

The types of housing will include general needs social and affordable housing, specialist housing and transitional supported housing.

London CIV has already identified more than £250 million of demand from its client funds and has scheduled a first close for the end of March 2023.

The pool has also selected its first investment into an underlying housing fund which is expected to close in Q2 2023.

Cllr Adrian Garden, Chair of Pension Committee, London Borough of Lambeth said: “Lambeth Pension Fund has for many years sought to invest in a fund that would increase the amount of social and affordable housing in the UK.

“With the setting up of the LCIV UK Housing Fund we are delighted that we are able to achieve that aim whilst meeting our fund’s wider objectives of diversification, impact and securing long-term income.”

Christopher Osborne, senior portfolio manager at London CIV said he was delighted to have received the first client fund approval from the London Borough of Lambeth to invest into the fund.

“We consider this product will offer our client funds diversification from other property markets and generate resilient income that is often supported by the government and typically tracks inflation,” said Osborne.

“Our focus will be on meeting our underlying return requirements and addressing the structural supply and demand imbalance in the housing sector that is being compounded by the current cost of living crisis.”

He added that a large component of the pool’s investment due diligence process concerns the assessment of the housing managers’ effectiveness to generate, measure, and report impact.