Bromford Flagship finalises first funding following merger

Newly merged housing association Bromford Flagship has finalised a new £100 million Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

The facility expands the liquidity position of the 80,000-home housing association, giving the group a total RCF portfolio of £850 million, the majority of which is undrawn. Following the merger of Bromford and Flagship housing groups at the end of February, the funding will help finance Bromford Flagship’s ambitions to increase its development of new homes in the future, including a significant proportion for social rent. The housing association is already the country’s largest builder of social rent homes, with Bromford and Flagship collectively completing more than 600 social rent homes in 2023-24.

The RCF allows for the inclusion of sustainability KPIs to be agreed between Bromford Flagship and RBC at a later date.

Matthew Rose, Director of Treasury at Bromford Flagship said: “We’re delighted to have finalised our first funding with RBC. Bromford Flagship wants to be the country’s leading developer of social rent homes over the next 30 years and will need to secure funding from new and existing domestic and international lenders to achieve this.  

"This funding gives us additional capacity to secure sites for our own developments, giving us greater control over the design and quality of the homes we build. This allows us to create thriving communities—because when people have high-quality homes and are part of an engaged community, anything is possible.”

Charles McKie, Director of Treasury and Financial Reporting at Bromford Flagship said: “Adding this Revolving Credit Facility to our portfolio will enable us to act swiftly on new opportunities to invest at scale in both our existing and new communities. It will also allow us to fund improvements to our existing homes as we continue our journey to ensuring all our homes have an energy efficiency rating of C or above by 2030 and to becoming a carbon net zero organisation by 2050.” Arshia Hashemi, VP, Corporate Banking, at RBC Capital Markets said: “We have been providing the UK social housing sector with our capital markets expertise for over twenty years. Through this facility we are delighted to now be supporting the strategic ambitions of the newly combined Bromford Flagship group, as we continue to focus on extending our support across the sector.”