The National Housing Bank has committed up to £70m to a fund intended to finance newly built family rental homes across Britain, with its private-sector partners aiming to establish a portfolio worth more than £1bn. The commitment comprises £51m of cornerstone capital and a further £19m that will become available as the fund expands.
The investment supports the Fiera Real Estate Single Family Housing fund, known as FRESH, established by Fiera Real Estate UK and its rental housing platform Packaged Living. Together with private institutional backing, the fund has reached £200m in investment capacity. That is its current capacity, distinct from the larger portfolio value it is targeting over time.
FRESH plans to finance developments through forward-funding and forward-commitment arrangements with housebuilders and other developers. Rather than concentrating on buying occupied homes from existing landlords, these structures can commit money to newly planned or emerging schemes, providing the developer with an identified buyer or funding partner as construction progresses.
Forward funding typically involves an investor providing finance during development under agreed conditions. A forward commitment establishes an agreement to purchase a completed development, subject to the contract. Both approaches can offer greater certainty to developers about demand for the final homes, though construction risks, planning permissions, costs, and completion conditions remain important.
The fund will focus on single-family rental housing: houses built for professionally managed rental portfolios, rather than individual homes owned and let by unrelated landlords. Fiera and Packaged Living aim to distribute investments across multiple locations where housing supply is constrained, building a diversified portfolio with institutional partners.
The National Housing Bank is part of Homes England. Its investment model is intended to use public capital to encourage additional private funding into housing developments. The £51m cornerstone contribution gives FRESH an initial institutional commitment; the further £19m is linked to the fund’s growth rather than being described as capital already invested in completed properties.
For housebuilders, this creates a potential route to deliver groups of rental homes within wider development programmes. Instead of waiting for individual open-market sales, a developer can negotiate a transaction covering a defined number of units. The commercial terms determine the funding timetable and the responsibilities for delivery and occupation.
The partnership does not itself mean that £1bn of homes has been built, or that all future investment is secured. The bank and its partners have described the billion-pound figure as a portfolio target. Individual housing sites will still require acceptable proposals, planning and building approvals, and development agreements before construction can proceed.
The initial £200m capacity provides a starting point for Fiera Real Estate and Packaged Living to pursue those agreements. As the portfolio expands, the bank’s additional commitment is intended to support further investment and increase the volume of new family homes reaching the rental market.
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