Magenta Living has secured £40m in financing from Santander, enabling the Wirral housing provider to buy 50 new homes within days.
The loan is the first tranche of a wider £77m financing package planned for this year, which will fund retrofitting, green initiatives and new-build homes. Magenta Living is building 1,300 new homes by 2030, with 70% located within its Wirral heartland and the remainder across the Liverpool City Region.
Having secured the finance, Magenta Living agreed terms and paid the deposit on 50 new homes from housebuilder Northstone at its Merse development, within 10 days of the Santander agreement.
After going to the market, Magenta Living received financing offers totalling around £300m – five times the amount it was seeking.
Paul McGrady, chief finance officer at Magenta Living, said: “By raising the finance now, we can move quicker with our building programme and say ‘yes’ to opportunities. That’s how we were able to sign an agreement for 50 homes from leading housebuilder Northstone within 10 days of the loan agreement, for homes that will be ready in September.
“We are very pleased with the market’s confidence in our business, and by extension the Wirral more generally. We are still in negotiations with an exciting range of other institutions for this year’s financing round, which will total £77m.”
Phil Wilson, chief executive of Northstone, said: “We have a good relationship with Magenta Living as a local developer on the Wirral, and we are delighted that they have been able to secure this quick turnaround on this deal. Merse is an exciting mixed-tenure development with various partners providing much-needed new homes to people in the area, and we look forward to handing the keys to 50 of them over to Magenta in the not-too-distant future.”
Deena Yadav, relationship director, social housing at Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking, said: “We are pleased to have supported Magenta Living with £40m of financing, enabling the organisation to move quickly on its plans to invest in new homes. Magenta Living has a clear vision for delivering high-quality, sustainable housing, and we’re proud to support its continued growth and investment in communities across the Liverpool City Region. This transaction demonstrates Santander’s ongoing commitment to supporting the social housing sector and the delivery of much-needed homes.”
Main image: Paul McGrady, Magenta Living’s chief finance officer on the site of a future development in Birkenhead, Wirral
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