AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets and its Irish private rented sector (PRS) venture partner Kennedy Wilson have bought a residential development for €161m.

AXA IM - Real Assets said on behalf of clients and alongside Kennedy Wilson, it has acquired 274 residential units at The Grange, South County Dublin, as well as an adjacent four-acre PRS development site.

The Grange is a residential complex totalling 506 units spread across nine separate blocks of between four and eight storeys set on a landscaped four-acre site in Sandyford, South Dublin.

Construction is expected to commence next year, allowing for the new units to be expected to be delivered to the market in 2021.

John O’Driscoll, the European head of transactions at AXA IM - Real Assets, said: “This investment is directly in line with the stated strategy of our JV and increases its portfolio of designated PRS units in the attractive Dublin market to a meaningful scale.”

In May, AXA IM - Real Assets entered the Irish PRS via a 50:50 joint venture with the New York-listed real estate investment company, investing in three prime Dublin PRS schemes comprising 1,173 units.

The Grange is a high-quality scheme in a well-connected and desirable location that benefits from increasing occupier demand in line with local employment growth and supportive underlying market dynamics, O’Driscoll said.

”Furthermore, there is attractive long-term prospects to increase the rental intake, both through the currently under-rented units and the significant on-site development potential.”