Goldman commits £500m to SME housebuilding lender Quantum

Goldman Sachs is committing up to £500m in funding to a specialist SME housebuilding lender in the wake of figures casting fresh doubt on the likelihood of the government achieving its new homes target during this parliament.

Sky News understands that the Wall Street banking giant has agreed to provide the expanded long-term lending facility to Quantum Development Finance - taking its total exposure to the company to as much as £700m.

Founded in 2023, Quantum provides development and bridging finance to SME housebuilders in England and Wales at a time when many of the larger industry players have found their balance sheets under increasing strain.

The extended agreement with Goldman Sachs will enable Quantum, which is backed by the alternative investment manager AB CarVal, to provide larger loans.

It comes after new data from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) showed that during the three months to the end of June, Britain had built the fewest new homes in a quarter since 2012, and the fewest in any 12-month period since 2013.

"These figures show a housing pipeline being squeezed to historically low levels, with too few planning permissions coming forward to meet the country's housing needs," said Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the Home Builders Federation.

"The cumulative impact of higher taxes, increasing costs and layers of new policy requirements is making more and more sites unviable, while weak demand has been compounded by the absence of meaningful government support for first-time buyers and a lack of affordable mortgage lending."

Quantum's expanded alliance with Goldman Sachs has also emerged just days after Andy Burnham announced a revival of the Help To Buy scheme under the rebranded banner Your First Home.

Offering loans of up to £35m, Quantum works with build-to-rent, student housing and co-living developers.

It has financed the development of 4,000 new homes to date and hit a £1bn funding milestone during the summer.

"Goldman Sachs' approval of this facility is a positive signal for the Quantum team as we focus on building an alternative credit platform with bank-level operational rigour," Oliver Thompson, co-founder and chief executive of Quantum Development Finance, said.

"For our clients and partners, these large and long-term commitments from established funding partners, Goldman Sachs and AB CarVal, are a clear signal that Quantum has the appetite and readiness to keep backing high-quality developers and property investors, at every stage of their journey - whether that is their first scheme with us, or their fifth."

(c) Sky News 2026: Goldman commits £500m to SME housebuilding lender Quantum