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News  »  Community Share Offer



   Community Share Offer    1 December, 2022

Oxfordshire Community Land Trust Launches Community Share Offer - Social investors sought to help deliver pioneering new development

 

Oxfordshire Community Land Trust (OCLT) is currently building eight affordable rented apartments in Dean Court in Cumnor Parish, West Oxford, where a lack of affordable rental housing is causing difficulties for key workers and local people to find suitable homes. The mainly volunteer-run organisation started building the scheme in May 2022, and its scheduled for completion by June 2023.

 

Alongside generous grant funding from both Vale of White Horse and the Oxfordshire Futures Partnership, the development will be part-funded by a mortgage from Ecology Building Society. However, increasing variable interest rates are putting the projects delivery at risk so OCLT is looking to replace part of the Ecology mortgage with more affordable finance from social investors.

 

The OCLT Community Share Offer will offer socially-motivated investors the opportunity to be a part of this pioneering affordable community-housing development. Shares are offered at a value of £1 each and are offered in multiples of £250; the minimum shareholding being £250 and the maximum £50,000. The Community Shares carry a target maximum interest rate of 3%. Investors can find out more and invest via the Ethex positive investing platform at www.ethex.org.uk/invest/OCLT.

 

The site known as Crofts Court will be sustainably built, with high levels of insulation, clean energy generated from roof-top solar panels to reduce energy bills, and permeable landscaping to minimise water run-off. The development is also unique in that it will require prospective tenants from the Vale’s Housing Register (who will have a strong local connection to Cumnor Parish) to join a tenant management co-operative to help manage and run the building. This should create a strong residential community and enable the tenants to develop useful employment skills provided through OCLTs tenant training scheme.

 

Trust Director and social investor Vyvyan Salmon said “Community Share Offers are unique in that they allow sympathetic individuals and organisations to support valuable projects, and in return not only do they receive a social return on investment but target a financial one too.”

 

More information on the Trusts work can be found here https://www.oclt.org.uk/ and with regard to the Share Offer here www.oclt.org.uk/crofts-court.

We are also always interested in land and housing opportunities for the provision of permanently affordable homes.

Capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed

 

 

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