As the government’s housing delivery agency, we help to build the homes needed across England and encourage innovation, both in the kind of homes that are built and the way they are delivered.
We do this in two ways:
- by providing development finance to small and medium house builders
- by providing infrastructure funding to support developers, master developers and landowners
Development finance – loans
Through the Levelling Up Home Building Fund, we will continue to provide investment directly to developers, in the form of loans, and to specialist lenders.
Loans can start from £250,000, with house builders typically borrowing between £2 million and £5 million. Development finance is designed to support small and medium homebuilders that are struggling to access development finance from the private market and to help new entrants into the housing sector, to bolster house building and diversify the market.
If you’re a small or medium sized house builder and are interested in applying for a development loan, you will need to have majority control of the site you plan to build on and be planning to build five or more homes. Read our guidance to find out more about whether a development loan through the Levelling Up Home Building Fund could support you, and how to apply.
Development finance – equity and joint ventures
In addition to providing development loans, Homes England is keen to explore how funding from the Levelling Up Home Building Fund can be used to develop more sophisticated financial arrangements, such as lending alliances with the private sector, increasing the amount of funding we are able to provide to the housebuilding sector.
The fund also has the capacity to form joint ventures, which can support projects to regenerate town centres and revive public places, working with local councils, housing developers and others.
Infrastructure finance
Through the Home Building Fund we will continue to provide infrastructure loans to help unlock and accelerate land for housing development.
Many viable strategic housing sites carry substantial barriers to building homes, despite the clear need for them. These challenges can include substantial up-front infrastructure costs and s106 obligations that need to be spread over multiple phases before the project reaches a positive cashflow position.
Through the Home Building Fund, infrastructure loans will be available to help mitigate these barriers, by providing loans, up to £250 million, to prepare sites for building and fund the implementation of necessary infrastructure.
If you’re working on a housing development and require loan funding for site preparation and the infrastructure needed to enable housing to progress and prepare land for development, the Home Building Fund could help you. To find out more about the eligibility criteria, and how to apply, read our Home Building Fund guidance.
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