Business North May 2021

18 | New Ground Capital “A stable housing market is in everyone’s best interests long term. And 50% of people in Auckland today live in rental housing. Our projects offer investors stable long term returns and tenant customers enjoy secure high quality rental housing.” DEVELOPMENT Investing with a social conscience The Kerepeti Apartments at Hobsonville Point - one of New Ground Capital’s housing developments. I nvestment company New Ground Capital focuses on impact investing – investment in for-profit businesses that also seek to make a meaningful contribution at a societal or environmental level. “Investing and a social conscience don’t need to be mutually exclusive – in fact, profits and positive impact often go hand-in-hand. If we look after our people and our environ- ment, we all benefit,” explains co-founder and managing director Roy Thompson. That’s why build-to-rent (BTR) has become the main focus – constructing high quality purpose-built rental housing for tenants help- ing to meet the shortage of housing that New Zealand desperately requires. This sees New Ground Capital team up with large investment companies such as commu- nity trusts, iwi organisations and government agencies to develop new housing solutions that generate societal and environmental impact alongside solid returns. “A stable housing market is in everyone’s best interests long term. And 50% of people in Auckland today live in rental housing,” says Roy. “Our projects offer investors stable long term returns and tenant customers enjoy secure high quality rental housing.” Tenant customers are offered lease terms of up to seven years with rent increasing at market rates. Tenants can give notice and leave earlier if they need to, meaning many opt for the security of a long tenure, says Roy. As a professional landlord, New Ground’s property management business, New Ground Living, manages the properties. New Ground acquires land, designs and constructs the developments, and then leases the complet- ed homes. While it prefers to engage in joint ventures where New Ground also has a stake in the project, it has also undertaken pro- jects that have been funded entirely by third parties, such as a project where New Ground developed 49 new rental homes close to the RNZAF air base at Whenuapai that are leased to the NZDF on a fixed term lease basis and entirely owned by iwi interests. For investors, New Ground Capital enables them to invest in New Zealand’s largest capital market in a stable asset class with the benefit T Karen Phelps of professional management. New Ground Capital also established the Impact Enterprise Fund with partners Ākina Foundation and Impact Ventures. The Impact Enterprise Fund provides growth capital to businesses that deliver social and/or environmental impact, alongside at- tractive financial returns. The fund has joined the ranks of funds embracing the global impact investing movement by completing a final close of $8.7m. Roy says that this fund, a first of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand, has two primary objectives: delivering market-rate financial returns, and delivering tangible soci- etal and environmental outcomes. New Ground Capital was founded in 2014 by a small group of executive shareholders. Roy has 30 years’ experience in local and international financial markets and 25 years of successful entrepreneurial activity across a range of industries. Matt Heal overseas the property devel- opment side of the business. Brian Collins heads up New Ground Living, the property info@construkt.co.nz | 09 373 4900 | www.construkt.co.nz management and leasing arm of the business, and chief operating officer Jonathan Holden, brings nearly 20 years’ experience in banking and investment management. With several large BTR developments already completed, and more in the pipeline, including a new project just starting construc- tion in Tamaki, Roy says that New Ground Capital is leading the way and creating a future where a successful BTR sector is firmly established in New Zealand. “New Ground Capital has already initiated the development of 487 new dwellings in Auckland and Queenstown, of which 176 will be retained as long-term rentals and man- aged by New Ground Living. This is just the beginning; with the right assets in the right locations, New Ground Capital will maximise on-going cash return for investors, and create much needed certainty of tenure for tenants.”