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This post was authored by the Impact Investing Institute.

In March 2021, Hyde Housing and M&G Real Estate announced a new partnership to build around 2,000 high quality, sustainable shared ownership homes. The deal had been negotiated, exchanged and completed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the launch of the report “Is there an investment case for social and affordable housing in the UK?”, Catherine Raynsford, Director of Stakeholder and Investor Relations at Hyde Housing, outlined the main features of this successful partnership.

The key messages from the case study are:

  • The benefits of an investment relationship can go beyond capital
  • The investee company should have clear strategic priorities from the outset (set at Board level)
  • Potential investors can then be selected on the basis of mission alignment
  • Both parties need to make the time to get to know the other, and the other’s operating context – particularly when investors are entering a new sector
  • Maintaining alignment over time can be achieved via different means – via strategic partnership, or by integrating agreed impact objectives into the corporate governance of a joint venture – and the means need to be adapted to the commercial context

View the full case study below.