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Activate closes funding round as it targets €1bn in 2018
The Irish Times article on Activate Capital’s successful fundraising.
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Activate Capital to grow to €1bn with additional fundraising
Activate Capital to grow to €1bn with additional fundraising. ISIF and KKR commit an additional €270 million.
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The role of apartments in meeting Irish housebuilding requirements, 2018-2022
Activate Capital recently commissioned Ronan Lyons, Assistant Professor of Economics in Trinity College Dublin, to analyse the Irish housing market and to provide specific insights into the need or otherwise of apartments as part of the solution to the current and acute shortage of housing stock. Attached to this post is the final report. Ronan comments that “Ireland does not appear to have a shortage of ‘family homes’, but rather it has a shortage of housing stock that is appropriate for smaller households, such as first time buyers, students and empty nesters.” Ronan continues “Ireland has almost 900,000 households comprising just one or two persons but only 350,000 dwellings of a size suitable for smaller households and my analysis points to a backlog of c. 500,000 ‘missing’ apartments. This shortage is stark in an international context. Across the EU as a whole, roughly 50% of all dwellings are apartments – in Ireland, that statistic is just 12%, ranking Ireland lowest across the EU.” On the future, Ronan’s view is that projected population growth (CSO predictions estimate a c. 15% increase in Ireland’s population over the next 15 years), combined with on-going urbanisation and decline in household size, will significantly exacerbate the need for apartments. Ronan comments “Addressing this acute shortage of apartments means that one apartment block of 200 apartments would be required every week in Dublin over the short, medium and longer term. Outside Dublin, c. 1,200 apartments are needed every month. ‘Apartments’ in this context includes urban core medium/high rise apartments and suburban low/medium rise apartments, both of which will appeal to different ends of the housing lifecycle. It also includes purpose-built student and key-worker accommodation, as well as independent and assisted living schemes for Ireland’s older residents. In addition, the need spans the income distribution, with both private and social housing included in that figure.” Ronan concludes “The challenge is not to anticipate the need, which is clear, but rather to harness the private and public sectors to meet that need.” Robert Gallagher, CEO Activate Capital, comments “In commissioning the report, we asked Ronan to take a holistic view on the life cycle of housing requirements in Ireland. We would concur that with the projected strong growth in population over the next decade, scale apartment delivery will increasingly become an important part of the housing solution. We are evidencing appetite from customers to consider apartment development in the main urban centres.”
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Activate Capital and Cairn Homes agree €50m debt finance facility for Montrose acquisition
Read the Irish Times coverage of the agreement between Activate and Cairn Homes for funding of Montrose acquisition here.
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Acquisition of site at Castlepark Road, Dalkey
Twinlite announced the acquisition of a new site at Castlepark Road, Dalkey, Co. Dublin.
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State-backed Activate Capital funding development of 1,200 homes
State-backed Activate Capital funding development of 1,200 homes. Residential finance provider Activate Capital has now committed funding for sites in the greater Dublin area with the capacity to build 1,200 new homes. Activate Capital is a joint venture between the State-controlled Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and global investment firm KKR. The sites are a mix of both zoned and planned locations with the type of houses ranging from starter to larger family homes. The first houses backed by Activate are due to hit the market in October. Activate chief executive Robert Gallagher said the Government’s housing action plan is to be welcomed. “A significant inhibitor of progress has been the inability of house builders to access sufficient capital to progress their plans. Our capital partners ISIF and KKR have agreed to amend their facilities so that we can offer competitively priced loans across the development risk spectrum. This is particularly timely given the Government’s initiative and the pent up demand for development finance,” he said. The investment chief continued, saying while there is an increase in projects in its pipeline there needs to be much more development activity in the market to make a meaningful impact on the housing shortages. “The greater availability and affordability of bespoke capital for house building will undoubtedly help move the dial. Given this, we anticipate a material uplift in activity in 2017, not just in Dublin but also in other urban locations around the country.” Activate has also added to its executive team recently, with Dan Murphy joining from AIB, Emmet O’Reilly from Argentum Homes and Ciaran O’Toole from Ulster Bank. Activate has also appointed Stewart Harrington as a Non-Executive Director.
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Ireland Strategic Investment Fund Announce €500M Home-Building Finance Joint Venture with Leading Global Investment Firm KKR
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (“ISIF“), managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (“NTMA“), together with KKR Credit, have today announced the launch of a new €500 million joint venture, which transforms the funding options available to the Irish house building sector and will be capable of financing the construction of over 11,000 new homes in Ireland. Activate Capital will focus exclusively on lending to Irish residential development projects. The lending platform will facilitate home-builders in engaging in medium/large scale housing schemes, delivering a material increase in housing supply. Activate Capital will lend on a commercial basis to projects, providing home-building companies with cost effective loans for up to 90 per cent of the total financing requirement. As a large and labour intensive sector, recovery in the construction industry will be critical to the realisation of further employment gains in Ireland. The establishment of Activate Capital is intended as a significant step towards unlocking credit for Irish house builders. Projects funded by the new joint venture are expected to create an average of 1,900 full-time jobs per annum in construction and ancillary services. ISIF will contribute €325 million towards the joint venture, making it the biggest single investment yet undertaken by ISIF. KKR will provide the remaining €175 million.
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