Case study

Refurbishing a property to tackle homelessness

A former care home has been redeveloped into a 14 bedroom house, to provide much needed accommodation for homeless people in East Sussex.

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A run-down care home has been redeveloped into a 14-bedroom house, to provide much-needed accommodation for homeless people or those at risk of being made homeless.

Thanks to a development loan of £470,000 from CAF Bank, property developer Haven Sent Properties Ltd teamed up with the Littlehampton & Rustington Housing Society Ltd (LRHS) to bring the plans to life.

Since purchasing the former care home in January 2018, the developer has finished refurbishing the property and leased it out to LRHS, to accommodate people facing homelessness.

Moreover, Haven Sent has nominated a local women’s homelessness charity to receive a £2,350 donation, as part of a unique feature of the CAF Bank development loan, where borrowers can transfer one third of the loan arrangement fee to charitable causes of their choosing. This is administered through a Charity Account or Company Account.

Highlighting the main driver of the project, Carly Houston, Director of Haven Sent properties, said: “There’s a huge homelessness problem in Brighton and across Sussex more widely and this is what we are trying to alleviate. The donation will also fund our partner’s work in this same area and go some way to helping the organisation support homeless people in the region.”

I really liked the sound of CAF Bank's ethos and the fact that part of our fee would be donated to a cause we care about.

Carly Houston
Director, Haven Sent Properties

Shared vision

Explaining the choice of lender, she added: “I really liked the sound of CAF Bank’s ethos and the fact that part of our fee would be donated to a cause we care about.”

The loan enabled the three-year partnership between Haven Sent and LRHS to expand their housing stock, providing nearly 40 people with accommodation across the seven properties managed.

Their enduring partnership is driven by a shared vision, according to Sally Morris, Interim General Manager at LRHS: “Carly and her team fully understand our mission of helping people in need and are themselves genuinely passionate about this tenant group. We are very grateful for their work and look forward to seeing how the property turns out.”

Andrew Smith, Client Relationship Manager at CAF Bank, said: “It has been fantastic working with Carly on such a meaningful project. To be able to contribute to making a change in the local area is a great feeling and is very much in line with our wider ethos."

Project snapshot

Type of project	HMO refurbishment
Loan amount	£470,000
Loan to Cost	73%
Loan to GDV	65%
Development loan %	65% of purchase price and 100% of development costs
Location of development	Littlehampton BN17
Charity beneficiary	Littlehampton & Rustington Housing Society Ltd

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CAF Bank loans are non-regulated products.

The Loan to Cost and Loan to GDV figures stated were correct at the time of loan sanction, but are subject to change during the loan term.

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