Development Partnerships Strategy

Soho Housing Association is a major residential and commercial landlord in the West End, and has the largest local stockholding of any housing association. The tenanted value of its residential portfolio is over £75m and, as a registered social landlord (RSL), the Association has received over £57m of Social Housing Grant (SHG) from the Housing Corporation. It is an established s106 partner with Westminster City Council and Camden Council.

Unusually for a housing association, Soho HA also has a substantial portfolio of commercial properties including several of the world famous specialist bookshops along the Charing Cross Road. The Association has a successful track record as a property manager covering both affordable/social and market rent housing.

The Association was started by local people over 30 years ago to ensure that the West End – and particularly Soho and Covent Garden – remained thriving areas where people of all incomes could afford to live. It has developed, and now manages, 700 homes in award-winning developments throughout and beyond the West End.

Its original mission remains relevant today - but delivery needs creative financing and new kinds of partnership. The Association is therefore launching a new strategy to expand its portfolio through acquisition, new development and joint ventures.

Soho Housing Association is looking for opportunities to:

• acquire residential portfolios in and around the West End

• manage residential portfolios on behalf of institutional and individual landlords

• explore joint ventures to develop new homes of all tenures with other land owners in the West End

• dispose of its interest in some of its commercial portfolios where this facilitates the production of major new residential development

• use its substantial borrowing power – at the competitive commercial lending rates uniquely available to RSLs – to fund residential development

• continue its long established and successful partnerships with Westminster City Council and the Camden Council as both a developer and landlord

• structure the production of affordable housing so as to use the financial advantages of access to SHG and the Association’s tax status as a charitable body

If your organization would like to explore how we could work in partnership, contact Chris Best, our Chief Executive, on 020 7299 0770 or email her at chris@sohoha.org.uk.