French giant AXA takes joint control of Hyde’s for-profit

An AXA IM Alts spokesperson told Social Housing: “We are exploring opportunities to work with Hyde Group to progress our shared ambition of delivering new social and affordable housing across England and have taken a 50 per cent stake in Halesworth… to give us a platform to achieve that goal.”

The spokesperson declined to say how much AXA IM Alts paid for its stake in Halesworth.

The firm is a division of AXA Investment Managers, which is ultimately owned by global insurance specialist AXA Group. 

AXA Investment Managers manages €887bn worth of assets globally, according to its latest full-year figures. It is regarded as one of the world’s largest asset managers. 

The new AXA/Hyde/Homes England development vehicle – Newton Development Partners – is aiming to build mixed-tenure developments, which will then be offered to Halesworth. 

The aim is for “at least” half of the homes to be classified as affordable, including social and affordable rent tenures, Hyde said. The G15 group will also be responsible for identifying development opportunities. The entity does not currently have a targeted number of homes, Hyde said. 

Andy Hulme, chief executive of Hyde, told Social Housing that the new model “offers a way of bringing more responsible capital into the housing sector and delivering new affordable homes that might not otherwise have been possible”.

Hyde, which currently operates around 50,000 homes, will provide “development management services” and manage the affordable homes for Halesworth, he added. Halesworth will no longer be a 100 per cent subsidiary of Hyde.

Halesworth was officially registered with the Regulator of Social Housing in July. This meant the G15 giant became the first traditional housing association to have a for-profit entity registered with the regulator, two years after Social Housing revealed Hyde’s plans.

Hyde’s tie-up with AXA IM Alts is the second time in the space of 18 months the association has struck a deal with a major investor. In March last year Hyde signed a deal with M&G aimed at delivering £500m worth of shared ownership homes. 

Peter Freeman, chair of Homes England, said: “Our partnership with Hyde Group and AXA IM Alts continues our mission to work with both public and private sector organisations to build more affordable homes in the areas that need them most.

He added: “We’ll continue to embrace innovative partnerships with leading institutional investors like AXA IM Alts to ensure diversification in the housing market that will ultimately allow social purpose organisations like Hyde to keep building the new quality homes the country needs.”

It comes amid social landlords’ increasing efforts to access private finance for development as the challenges of building safety and decarbonisation weigh heavy, while the threat of a tighter rent cap looms.