Private equity behemoth Blackstone and property investor Regis to buy £570m of affordable homes in Vistry deal

Private equity giant Blackstone and property investor Regis Group teamed up today to buy 1,750 homes from affordable housebuilder Vistry in a £580 million deal.

The homes will be spread across 36 developments, mostly in the south east of England. They will be managed by Regis’ Blackstone-backed Leaf Living arm, with the first sales taking place by the end of the month.

The trillion-dollar asset manager Blackstone has become a larger player in the UK’s affordable housing market in recent years, amid what it calls “a chronic shortage of affordable homes”.

James Seppala, head of European real estate at Blackstone, said: “Institutional private capital can play an important role in providing high quality housing stock across the UK, particularly in the private rented sector which is significantly undersupplied today.

“Partnerships such as these can meaningfully accelerate the delivery of new homes and help alleviate structural undersupply across the sector.”

Vistry boss Greg Fitzgerald said: “By working in partnership with organisations like Leaf Living we can maximise the number of high-quality homes we deliver every year.  This agreement supports our differentiated business model, with the certainty provided by the pre-selling of homes enabling us to accelerate our build programmes, guarantee work for our supply chain, reduce sales and build costs and create vibrant new communities.  This year we are on track to deliver more than a 10% increase in new home completions, playing a key part in helping to address the UK’s acute housing shortage.”

Vistry announced a change in strategy last year to focus entirely on affordable housing partnerships, after it acquired Countryside Partnerships.

Its shares were a little lower today, down 16p to 1293p. That still leaves them up more than 40% for the year.