OVER 500 new homes will be coming to Ayrshire after investment of £30million was announced by a local housing association.

Jobs and apprenticeships will be amongst the community benefits across North and East Ayrshire, with over 100 houses to be built in Saltcoats and Stevenston alone.

Cunninghame Housing Association this week announced that it had secured a £30million Private Placement Investment from Institutional Investors to part fund its ongoing ambitious, approved new build housing development programme.

The Association appointed NatWest Markets as its Private Placement Agent to run the process.

One of the first new build sites to be developed with the new investment will be the association’s site A, Phase 4 of Sharphill, Saltcoats (76 houses, £11.88m total costs) which is set to start in September of this year. Balnagowan at Skelmorlie (27 houses £4.62m total costs) and Ardoch Court in Stevenston (28 houses £3.87m total costs) will also be funded by means of the placement.

The £30million funding together with ongoing Scottish Government investment will allow the association to build 550 new homes throughout North and East Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

Frank Sweeney, Chief Executive of Cunninghame Housing Association stated: “The NatWest Markets team, our legal advisors Harper Macleod our financial consultants FMD Financial Services Limited together with our internal Leadership Team were fantastic in ensuring the delivery of this first tranche of £30million in private placement funding. We are now already planning for our second £30million tranche of funding which will help us build an additional 500 houses.”

George Flynn, Vice President of NatWest Markets said “The NatWest Markets team is delighted to have assisted Cunninghame to help secure its debut capital markets transaction. This demonstrates the continued investor appetite for social housing credits and highlights the importance of a well-structured and considered approach to the private placement market.”