Minister of State visits Manchester private rented sector scheme funded by Gatehouse Bank

LONDON, 28 April, 2016: The Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The Rt Hon Hugo Swire MP, made an official visit to Manchester this week, to view one of Gatehouse Bank’s (“Gatehouse”) Private Rented Sector (“PRS”) development sites, which will provide up to 1000 homes across the North West Region of private rented homes to the area. The Rt Hon Hugo Swire MP was accompanied by Gatehouse’s senior management, including their Chief Investment Officer, Abdulaziz AlDuweesh. The Shariah-compliant investment Bank, based in London, is the driving force behind a £700 million scheme, which will deliver more than 6,500 new private rented homes over the next few years, making it one of the largest PRS platforms in the UK. The first phase of the scheme, to build in excess of 900 homes in Greater Manchester and Merseyside, is being delivered in partnership with Sigma Capital, a residential and urban regeneration specialist. Gatehouse is predominantly owned by institutional and sovereign shareholders from the State of Kuwait, and its investment activities in PRS include significant support from the Kuwait Investment Authority to address the UK’s housing shortage. In addition to his role as Minister of State, The Rt Hon Hugo Swire MP also heads up the UK Government’s task force on Islamic Finance. Abdulaziz AlDuweesh, Chief Investment Officer of Gatehouse, added: “We’re delighted that the Minister had a chance to visit the site and witness the extent to which our investment is making a difference to local communities, where housing shortages have been at their most rife. The ever growing supply constraints in today’s housing market have meant that the ability to become a homeowner is diminishing rapidly. In response, the £700 million scheme provides families and individuals with quality rentable homes with the hope of guaranteeing them a more stable future.”