Homes for People, a newly formed provider of accommodation for the homeless, is planning to raise £150mln through an initial public offering (IPO).
The group, which has been established by several social housing sector veterans, will be known as HOPE plc and intends to listing on IPSX, the specialist real estate exchange, at some point next year.
If successful, it will become the second company to join the exchange, following Mailbox REIT plc.
HOPE claims it has been borne out of the need to create cheap, suitable lodging.
Figures cited by Crisis, the homelessness charity, state that councils spent more than £1bn on temporary and emergency accommodation in England in 2019, with that number largely inflated by a lack of viable accommodation.
HOPE says the process of identifying homes has already begun, with a pipeline of properties that it would seek to acquire once its fundraising has been completed.
Set up by Nick Salisbury, a former real estate banker at Barclays, and David de Silva, a social housing sector veteran, HOPE is targeting similar access achieved by Home REIT, whose follow-up fundraising in September this year was oversubscribed.
It believes its model, which will offer inflation linked rental income yield to any potential investors will be an attractive selling point.
Speaking to Sky News, de Silva said, “we will be offering an attractive, inflation-linked cash yield to investors in a world of low yields and inflationary pressures.”