ACCESS invests £1.3 billion into property solution

Two of the eleven Administering Authorities of the ACCESS Pool (ACCESS), Essex County Council and Hampshire County Council, have made the first commitment to the Pool’s new property solution.

CBRE Investment Management (CBRE IM) are to manage the solution having been appointed by ACCESS in November 2023, to manage both a UK Core real estate and a Global real estate mandate. As a specialist manager, CBRE IM is working in partnership with ACCESS to help leverage the cost-effective scale of pooling, providing both UK and Global real estate investment opportunities and diversification.

The investment by Essex and Hampshire marks the progress the Pool is making for ACCESS’s partner funds to invest in Real Estate through the Pool.

Cllr Mark Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “We are pleased to report this significant investment two of our authorities have made to the Pool’s Real Estate manager. It further demonstrates the benefits of the pooling model where our member Authorities are able to realise a number of positives, in this case diversification and cost-efficiencies, to the ultimate aid of their investment objectives for members.”

Hannah Marshall, CIO – UK Direct Real Estate at CBRE Investment Management, said: “Following our recent appointment as UK Core and Global Indirect Investment Manager to the ACCESS Pool, we are thrilled to onboard both the Essex and Hampshire Pension Funds’ real estate portfolios, which brings a total of £1.3bn of real estate assets under ACCESS pool governance. The solution we have been able to provide to the Authorities is a great example of how cost saving benefits of pooling can be reaped whilst maintaining access to high quality managers. We look forward to working with Essex, Hampshire and the ACCESS pool as a whole to continue the pooling journey in real estate.”