Adra, the largest housing association in North Wales, has secured £65 million in new financing to accelerate the delivery of social housing across the region. The package comprises a £20 million social loan and a £45 million refinancing arrangement, both provided by NatWest.
The deal marks a first for the Welsh housing sector: Adra is the first housing association in Wales to complete on NatWest’s social loan product, a financing structure specifically designed to back the development of social rent properties rather than general housing stock.
Adra was established in 2010 following a stock transfer from Gwynedd Council and now manages more than 7,000 homes, serving over 16,000 customers across North Wales. The new funding will allow the organisation to move faster on its development pipeline, with the majority of planned new homes targeting EPC band A energy performance ratings — meaning they will be among the most energy-efficient properties in the social housing stock.
The financing also extends sustainability-linked loan metrics to Adra’s term loan, tying the cost of borrowing to the organisation’s progress against environmental and social targets. This structure reflects a growing trend in social housing finance, where lenders and housing providers align funding terms with long-term ESG outcomes rather than treating them as separate considerations.
Savills Financial Consultants acted as treasury adviser on the deal, helping Adra structure a package designed to give it both the certainty to commit to new schemes and the flexibility to adapt as its development programme evolves.
For NatWest, the transaction signals continued appetite to deploy its social loan product into the Welsh housing market, where demand for affordable homes has remained persistently high against a backdrop of constrained supply and rising construction costs.