Investing in Affordable Housing
The need for affordable homes has been recognised for well over 100 years and today affordable homes represent approximately 20% of all residential properties in the UK. Despite this, a chronic shortage of affordable homes exists in many parts of the country, resulting in this becoming a major social and political issue.
Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing
FAH seeks to increase the supply of affordable homes by providing the forward funding to enable new properties to be built and managed by established housing associations.
The affordable homes sector is experiencing significant change as strategies are sought to encourage the development of additional homes, whether for rent, shared ownership (part buy, part rent) or outright sale.
The definition “affordable” is widely used. For FAH an affordable home has specific attributes:
- It is supported by a regulatory framework
- It is managed professionally
- It is provided to specific interest groups with identified needs
- It is subject to a multi-year Full Repairing and Insuring (FRI) lease or a long-term management lease
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) regulates the sector. The RSH is sponsored by central Government through The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local government (MHCLG).
A well-defined system of regulation and governance exists and the sector has never suffered a credit default despite more than £50 billion being lent by commercial banks and building societies over the past 30 years.
