Beehive Affordable Homes was established in 2021 to help local authorities address homelessness and to reduce the use of temporary accommodation, while offering a solution to housing associations looking to sell homes to realise their social purpose.
The ultimate aim is for Beehive to be part of the systemic change needed to improve life outcomes for vulnerable households by enabling increased provision of high-quality affordable housing.
The cofounders are Jonathan Bunt and Chris Ashcroft, whose combined senior experience includes local authority finance, affordable housing and investment banking.
They set out to bridge the gap between housing associations with homes to sell and local authorities faced with the high costs stemming from their statutory duty on homelessness. The solution packages geographically disparate homes currently owned by housing associations into portfolios within specific local authority areas, all within an hour’s travel to relevant council’s HQ.
Within a few months, Beehive had completed two portfolio transactions across a total of 76 homes, all with backing from Macquarie Asset Management. This significant financial backing enables portfolios to be acquired in scale and at speed, while also delivering on significant Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives.
Enabling true affordability is at the heart of the Beehive approach. Our model has been created to deliver the best possible value for our housing association and local authority partners. We keep the transaction costs down, so that leases can be kept at or below 75% of the Local Housing Allowance.
