Man Group has signed a £31 million deal with leading modular housing company ilke Homes for 227 factory-built homes in Grantham.

The deal will see the delivery of an affordable and inclusive mixed tenure community on Dysart Road.

Of the 227 factory-built homes being delivered, 140 will be made available at affordable rent levels, 47 for shared ownership and 40 homes will be for private sale at market value.

Man GPM's Community Housing strategy seeks to achieve the dual objectives of providing both social and financial returns, addressing the housing crisis in the UK by building homes that are affordable to households. The strategy invests and develops both rental and ownership homes, with a focus on addressing the housing challenges of ‘squeezed middle-income’ families who do not qualify for social housing and for whom mortgages are unaffordable.

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With Man Group acting as developer on site, ilke Homes will manufacture the homes offsite in the company’s 250,000 sq. ft factory in Yorkshire. Once complete, the modular housing company will transport the homes to the site in Grantham.

Shamez Alibhai, Head of Community Housing and Portfolio Manager at Man GPM, said: "We are delighted to be making a positive contribution to ease the affordable housing shortage the UK is facing by delivering a high-quality modern development with a range of housing tenures. This investment demonstrates that it is possible to deliver high quality housing, using state of the art construction methods while also creating homes that are affordable to local residents.

"We believe the scale of the housing shortfall across the UK requires innovative solutions and importantly ones which look after people, place and planet. Delivering ilke Homes modular housing to the Grantham site means we are not only building affordable homes but doing so in a way that also upholds our commitment to sustainable and energy-efficiency projects."

The deal, the largest investment into the modular housing sector by an institutional investor this year, represents a huge vote of confidence in offsite manufacturing, which involves homes being precision-engineered along production lines. The sector has garnered huge interest from investors over the last several years, due to its ability to deliver high-quality, energy-efficient homes at pace.