GENIVS INSULAE, an investment fund focused on developing affordable rental housing infrastructure with social and environmental impact, has announced the launch of a new fund “with high social impact in housing” aimed at young people in Spain.
The project plans to mobilize between €150 and €250 million in private and institutional capital. The fund, established as a SICC and recently approved by the CNMV, will be managed by Alaluz Capital SGIIC, a regulated management company with 25 years of experience. GENIVS —which stands for Gestora Española de Nueva Infraestructura de Vivienda Social (Spanish Manager of New Social Housing Infrastructure)— currently manages a solid pipeline of more than 500 homes and has identified or is bidding to add over 2,100 additional units in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, and Zaragoza.
Its concession-based model, which involves building on public land through surface rights or administrative concessions, will allow the development of sustainable homes at prices up to three times lower than those of the free market, according to the company. It also adds that the fund’s size will enable the development of social infrastructure comprising around 3,000 homes. “GENIVS was created to provide high social impact solutions and to transform access to housing, not to compete with speculation. That’s why we will leverage all our experience to guarantee young people access to affordable and high-quality homes,” says Rafael Angulo Ruiz, Chairman and Founding Partner of GENIVS.
The project is primarily aimed at people under 35, the group most affected by job insecurity and lack of housing access: 87% of emancipated young adults share housing, and more than one-third earn less than €1,000 per month.
The GENIVS model is based on partnerships with key actors sharing the same social commitment, such as Provivienda, Hàbitat3, and Metropolitan House. “One of the distinctive features of the fund is its commitment to develop at least 70% of its infrastructure as protected housing, with 100% allocated to social or affordable rental. In addition, there is an environmental commitment to achieve an A energy rating and BREEAM certification,” they explain.
GENIVS points out that Spain currently has only 3.4% of social housing, compared to 9% in the European Union, and estimates that an additional 1.8 million units will be needed over the next decade. The fund proposes a scalable model to address this challenge and aims to become a European benchmark in ethical and profitable housing investment. “International experience shows that impact investors specializing in social housing have been key to further driving its development, and that is our goal in Spain,” adds Rafael Ángulo.
Its investment model rests on two pillars: first, positioning the fund as a hedge against inflation, aiming to deliver annual returns of around 10%; and second, generating measurable social impact, which will also serve as an additional criterion in assessing management performance.
“GENIVS offers a disruptive model that demonstrates that impact, social awareness, and investor profitability are not opposing but complementary objectives,” says Santiago Mínguez, Founding Partner of GENIVS. The fund already has a group of investors identified and committed to social objectives, representing about 40% of the fund’s maximum target size, according to the firm. “Our investors,” adds Mínguez, “value a proposal that combines attractive, inflation-protected returns backed by residential assets, with a controlled risk level comparable to that of any infrastructure investment. The social impact dimension has multiplied interest among large private investors and, following our recent status as a regulated entity, among institutional investors as well.”
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