Deal: Hall & Wilcox has advised Home Owners Partnering Equity (HOPE), a not-for-profit group, on an innovative shared equity housing arrangement that aims to help essential workers own a home closer to work.

Value: $30 million+

Area: Equity

Key players: The Hall & Wilcox team was led by partner Anne MacNamara, with assistance from partner Vince Battaglia, senior consultant Peter Jones and lawyers David Pham and Charlie Renney.

Deal significance: The shared equity fund will help essential workers buy homes close to their work — and the HOPE Housing Investment Trust co-invests with essential workers on a silent partner basis to help essential workers buy a home. Under the arrangements, essential workers decide where to buy and when to sell their home. When the home is sold, the HOPE fund receives a proportional share of the sale proceeds.

Hall & Wilcox is a supporting sponsor of the project, which has launched with an initial $30 million, said Ms MacNamara.

“This project has been complex and challenging to execute. The HOPE fund is a strategically important project, founded on the premise of helping essential workers, including nurses, teachers, police officers, transport workers, firefighters and paramedics, who may otherwise be priced out of property ownership in Australian metropolitan areas,” she said.

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Commenting further on the deal, HOPE Housing chief executive Tim Buskens said: “We have an excellent working relationship with Hall & Wilcox. The assistance, responsiveness, advice and support from the team has helped to bring life to this important project.”