Civitas Social Housing (CSH) invests across the UK in care-based community housing and healthcare facilities, particularly specialised supported housing, for the benefit of working age adults with long-term care needs. Its investment objective is to provide an attractive level of income with the potential for capital growth.
Investment summary
Civitas Social Housing’s (CSH’s) AGM statement confirmed that the financial and operational performance had remained robust with a continuation of strong and growing demand for specialised supported housing (SSH). Leverage of 34% remained comfortably in line with the company’s maximum 40% target and progress is being made with increasing the average tenor of debt facilities and further limiting exposure to interest rate fluctuations. Previously announced Q123 total return was 2.7%, continuing the consistently positive returns since IPO and DPS declared of 1.425p was in line with the full year target of at least 5.70p (+2.7%). CSH has made progress with its new lease clause which should assist housing association (HA) tenants in addressing issues identified by the regulator and inflation pressures. It has been approved by the boards of the two HAs with whom it was discussed initially and is now being introduced to several specimen leases.
SSH/care-based social housing is widely recognised to improve lives in a cost-effective manner compared with the alternatives of residential care or hospitals. If approved for SSH, the discussed cap on social housing rents will better align the interests of landlords and HAs in the current inflationary environment.
