The Current Landscape
The UK is currently grappling with a significant social housing crisis, characterized by a severe shortage of affordable homes. Approximately 1.2 million households are on waiting lists for social housing, with 279,400 people currently living in temporary accommodation. The shortage of social housing units has resulted in prolonged waiting times for many families, often forcing them into unsuitable or overcrowded living conditions. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that, over the past decade, there has been a net loss of 165,000 social homes, intensifying the housing crisis across the country.
In response to this crisis, the UK government has allocated substantial funds towards affordable housing, planning to invest £12 billion over the next five years. Despite this commitment, challenges remain. Housing associations in England have reduced their planned spending on new affordable homes by 9% for 2024, leading to an expected decrease in the number of homes built in the coming years. This reduction in investment is largely due to rising inflation, higher interest rates, and increased costs associated with upgrading existing homes to meet safety and energy efficiency standards.
With more than 1.3 million households stuck on the social housing waiting list in England, and a General Election in sight, Shelter is urging all political parties to commit now to the only solution that will end the housing emergency: 90,000 new social homes a year for 10 years.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/
How Echo Crest Properties are helping with the crisis
Echo Crest Properties has partnered with several major social housing investment companies, to help match investors with social housing opportunities. In turn providing opportunities for people requiring social housing in the UK to leave richer and fuller lives and providing great investments for our investors.
One key partner we are working with at the moment has raised over £6.4 Million in investments, across 500+ units, with a 20% annual ROI for investors. The current investment is £13,500 over a fixed 36 month period. With a return of £21,000 paid in monthly £600 installments after a 3 month initial grace period. The grace period is used to allow for refurbishment of units, furniture to be acquired and any other things required before new social housing tenants move in.
How secure is my investment?
The social housing investment partners we choose to work with have been thoroughly vetted by us. We are a fully compliant property sourcing company, registered with HMRC for Anti-Money Laundering, the Property Redress Scheme, the Information Comissioners Office and are fully insured and regulated.
The investment partners are working in partnership the with government to provide these social housing units, the monthly rental is paid in full regardless of voids by HM government. Your investment is used to cover the cost of up front rental of the unit, refurbishment and furnishing costs. Some units require a larger budget to accomplish this than others, so rather than offering some units for a £10,000 investment and some for a £15,000 investment, we set the investment to £13,500 across the board.
The rental is totally handsoff for you the investor, any repairs, voids or problems with the unit are taken care of by HM government and the investment partner. You tie your £13,500 up for 36 months plus the 3 month grace period and at the end of the 36 month (39 month total) term you will have received income totalling £21,000.
To provide some context as to why there is enough money to pay the rent, pay our investment partner and pay a 20% return per year to you, social housing for asylum seakers alone utilising hotels instead of housing units costs the government £8 million per day in the UK. That isn’t factoring in single parent families requiring social housing, people who need temporarily rehoming due to fire in their homes, etc.
What’s next?
If you would like to find out more about the latest social housing opportunities we have on offer, we can send you a presentation for you to look through and if it is something you are interested in we can book you in for a discovery call.