LGIM raises more for build-to-rent fund

Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets (LGIM Real Assets) has raised £170 million in equity from major institutions for its open-ended build-to-rent fund. The fund is intended to open up the rental market to long-term pension and institutional investors, and it follows £600 million of investment by L&G and Dutch pension fund PGGM.

In all, LGIM Real Assets now has £1 billion in investment capability and has over 1,000 homes under construction or in planning in Bristol, Salford and Walthamstow, and a pipeline of future projects around the UK in Birmingham, Leeds and London. The build-to-rent strategy will create a portfolio of high quality, long-term residential assets, providing much-needed rental accommodation to tenants and a rental income for pension funds to pay their pensioners. LGIM Real Assets director of fund management, Mike Barrie, said: “It is very pleasing to attract such significant institutional investment into our build-to-rent platform. We have a housing crisis in the UK, and only with institutional funding can we deliver the new homes the country needs. We have already secured £1 billion in funding, delivering 1,000 new homes either in planning or under construction, from a standing start in 2016. We are creating new jobs in the UK, and stimulating economic growth, and in 2017 we’ll also have our first new tenants moving into much needed new homes.”