LONDON, March 31, 2026, 14:34 BST
- Aviva and the National Housing Bank have launched a partnership with an initial £100 million commitment to build family rental homes, starting in Liverpool and Manchester. 1
- The platform is designed to scale to as many as 3,300 homes, making it one of the first investments backed by the new government-backed housing bank. 1
- The move comes as Homes England opens the bank with up to £16 billion of debt, equity and guarantees to help unlock private capital for housing. 2
Aviva said on Tuesday it will invest £100 million with the National Housing Bank, part of Homes England, to build family rental homes in underinvested urban areas, in one of the first deals backed by the new government housing finance vehicle. The first sites are in Liverpool and Manchester. 1
The timing matters. Homes England said the bank will open on Wednesday with up to £16 billion of debt, equity and guarantees and aims to help deliver more than 500,000 homes while unlocking over £53 billion of private investment over the next decade. For Aviva, the deal deepens a push into long-dated residential assets just as ministers try to pull more institutional money into housebuilding. 2
The partnership, working with developer Place Capital Group, starts with about 300 homes on brownfield, or previously developed, land and has scope to grow to 3,300 homes nationally as funding expands. Aviva said 135 homes are planned at Vescock Street in Liverpool and around 150 at Moston Lane in Manchester, where 36% will be affordable. 1
“This investment will provide working families with high quality, aspirational rental homes with stable tenancies,” David Epstein, managing director at Aviva Capital Partners, said in a statement. Simon Century, chief executive of the National Housing Bank, said the platform would bring together government-backed finance and institutional capital to deliver housing at scale. 1
Aviva Investors will manage the assets. James Stevens, head of global real estate equity at the business, said the insurer wants housing and other residential assets to account for more than 25% of its real estate portfolio within three years; Aviva said its existing single-family rental platform has already funded more than 1,500 homes and forms part of a portfolio worth more than £1 billion. 1
The broader lane is getting busier. Reuters reported earlier that peers including Legal & General and M&G were also increasing exposure to Britain’s rental homes as investors chased long-term income in a market short of supply. 3
Aviva has room to keep spending. On March 5, the insurer reported a 25% rise in 2025 operating profit to £2.2 billion, resumed a £350 million share buyback and reiterated targets after closing its £3.7 billion Direct Line acquisition. 4
But the housing bet is not risk-free. Build costs, financing costs and tenant demand can move fast. Reuters reported on Tuesday that UK house prices rose more than expected in March and the Bank of England said a day earlier that mortgage approvals beat forecasts in February, yet economists warned that higher borrowing costs linked to the Middle East conflict could still cool the market later this year. 5
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said the March rise suggested the market had regained momentum after a slowdown around the turn of the year. He also warned that the jump in global energy prices was “clouding the outlook.” 5
For the government, Aviva’s money gives the new bank an early private-sector partner. For Aviva, it adds another UK asset alongside insurance and retirement products. Whether the model scales beyond the first Liverpool and Manchester sites will be the harder test. 2
