Investing in Stonehill Cohousing
In order to purchase Stonehill, we have partnered with Catalyst Collective to build a financial model that takes as a starting point the savings of our current member households. As part of ongoing conversations with a number of ethical lenders who specialise in offering commercial mortgages for community housing projects, we have modelled and stress-tested our monthly cash flow for the next 40 years, with the assistance of a specialist co-housing finance expert.
Due to our commitment to ensure that Stonehill provides affordable and inclusive accommodation, we are now fundraising investments in addition to the savings put in by our member households. This additional financing is needed to make the project viable within a time frame that allows us to compete with commercial buyers and to secure the site for community use and cooperative housing for generations to come.
Why invest?
The type of investment we are seeking is called ‘loan stock’. It offers significant benefits to us as a group compared with seeking a larger mortgage from a bank.
With these kinds of loans from individuals we are able to agree on bespoke amounts, payback periods, and rates of interest per investor. For example, if we agreed an interest rate of 3%, (we offer 0-4% interest) this would be significantly lower than a mortgage for us, but higher than your average savings account for the investor.
Some investors may choose to help us further by accepting an interest rate of 0%. Please note that loan stock is unsecured and as such not backed by the value of property we are planning to purchase. However, as a cooperative society we are required to file annual reports with the Financial Conduct Authority.
Pledge today
If you would like a copy of our investor pack or to pledge a loan today, please get in touch with how much you’d like to pledge and we can be in touch to discuss further details.