LPP commits £150 million to private rented housing

Local Pensions Partnership has committed £150 million into the private rented housing sector alongside institutional investors including Allianz.

The pension pool made the allocation to residential investment vehicle DOOR, which is co-sponsored by Oxford Properties and DV4, which alongside APG Asset Management and Qatari Diar as separate shareholders, owns UK build-to-rent operator Get Living.

The latest closing brings DOOR’s current equity commitments to £1.2 billion, following the initial seed capital from Oxford and DV4, and the £250 million commitment from €95 billion Swedish pension fund Alecta.

Chris Rule, Chief Executive Officer, Local Pensions Partnership, said: “Supporting large scale residential property projects is an important part of our investment strategy, and the Get Living platform presented the key characteristics that we look to add to our portfolio.”

This investment will support the delivery and ongoing stewardship of high-quality, affordable and professionally-managed homes, he added.

The capital will be used to invest in Get Living’s existing development pipeline and for further large-scale acquisition opportunities as the platform pursues its ambition to become the pre-eminent UK-wide build-to-rent provider.

Get Living is targeting up to 12,000-14,000 homes, in the hope the scale will help drive further operational efficiencies and investor outperformance.

Get Living recently announced a £252 million forward-funding deal to accelerate the delivery of the second and final phase of Lewisham Gateway, one of the largest regeneration schemes in the South East. It will take the total number of homes within Get Living’s management and pipeline to more than 8,000 homes across four cities.

The residential rental sector has demonstrated its resilience during the pandemic and the long-term fundamentals underpinning the asset class remain unchanged, said Joanne McNamara, head of Europe at Oxford Properties.

“Having also completed our latest transaction in Lewisham – Get Living’s third London neighbourhood project – we now have strong momentum behind us to continue our expansion as part of Oxford’s global diversification strategy to invest into demographically-supported asset classes such as multifamily,” she added.