Genesis Homes is one of the first companies to benefit from the newly established regional growth initiative (RGI) for smaller house-builders.
The Housing Growth Partnership (HGP), which is funded by Lloyds Banking Group and the government’s Homes England agency, has committed £300m to equity funding for SME and regional housebuilders. Genesis Homes is getting £15m of this. In return HGP gets an undisclosed stake in the business for five years and shares any profits that Genesis might make over that period.
Genesis Homes, established in 2017, focuses on building traditional two-storey family housing in semi-rural locations. In April 2021 it took over Russell Armer Homes, based down the road in Kendal. With HGP backing, it is now in a position to purchase larger strategic development sites and grow into an established regional house-builder.
HGP has been backing Genesis from the outset. Since 2018, HGP has provided Genesis with equity commitments of £9.1m across seven development schemes, totalling 251 units, helping Genesis grow from delivering 10 units in its first full financial year to 75 units and revenue in excess of £20m in 2020. With the implementation of the RGI partnership, Genesis is on course to meet its target of delivering more than 180 units a year from 2025.
Nicky Gordon, managing director of Genesis Homes, said: “The RGI has allowed us to utilise our equity in progressing a larger number of schemes and it provides us with additional confidence to grow our business through this reassurance that our equity can go further. The sharing of speculative time delay risk in the planning and pre start process is also of significance in that we know that our entire equity is not trapped in specific schemes that may experience a delay in commencement. The streamlining of legal and due diligence processes is also notable“
HGP investment director John McKeon said: “HGP has supported Genesis for four years and been extremely impressed with the schemes delivered and the quality of the team that Nicky has built. It is with businesses like Genesis in mind, with strong capabilities, an ambition to increase their output and a strong local community focus, that we have developed the regional growth initiative.”
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