New investor with $41bn under management eyes more social housing lending

IFM Investors, which manages $41bn (£31bn) of global debt and equity, said it has “done research” on a number of potential borrowers, having completed its debut £60m deal with A2 Dominion.

“We have been looking at the social housing sector in the UK for a while, as well as Australia and Ireland, and looking to see whether it fits our investors’ portfolio,” said John Carey, investment director at IFM.

“There is significant capital that we have to invest for our clients and there will be some [housing borrowers] that fit with their objectives. There is a number that we have done research on.”

Mr Carey would not be drawn on how much potential funding might be available for the sector from IFM’s clients, which include large pension funds and insurers.

However, more deals could be done as early as this year and would “focus on the higher end of the spectrum in terms of scale”.

He added: “We are patient. It could be that there are more deals this year, or it could happen next year.”