California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has made a new $211m (€186.7m) allocation to the Pacific Multifamily Investors partnership.

The pension fund declined to comment on what would be a follow on commitment, having created the Pacific Urban Residential partnership in January last year.

Total commitment by CalPERS for the partnership is now $650m, more than half of the $1bn equity it is looking to commit over the next four to five years.

The move is in line with CalPERS’s strategy of using fewer real estate fund managers and larger relationships.

Pacific will buy apartment properties at least 11 years old west of the Mississippi. Core assets are typically thought to be less than 10 years old, putting the strategy outide what most funds consider core.

Pacific Urban believes that the properties it will buy still have core attributes and be able to achieve durability of income. A mixture of teachers, firemen, police officers and nurses, are typical tenants of the assets it invests in.

No more than 25% leverage will be used in the portfolio.

Acquisitions to date have been on the West Coast, from Southern California up to Seattle. The partnership can also consider Texas, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

The partnership now includes seven properties totaling more than 2,000 units.