Fairway Capital’s prime Central London value-add residential fund, which raised £80m (€92.5m) in July last year, has received further capital commitments from investors.
The manager said the third fundraising round for the Fairway Capital Property Fund was backed by institutions including a top-up investment from cornerstone investor Catalyst Capital and other investors include a number of high net worth investors introduced by Coutts & Co, via its investment club.
The fund, launched in March 2020, has since invested £70m to buy ten properties in Belgravia and Knightsbridge and is seeking to deploy a further £50m on further acquisitions, the manager said.
Fairway Capital chairman, James Goldie, said: “2020 will be remembered as a harrowing year with seemingly daily negative news regarding Covid and its sad impact. Notwithstanding this, the fourth quarter of 2020 yielded better news around exogenous shocks that had been buffeting UK confidence.
“Covid vaccine breakthroughs and an early 2021 rollout, a Brexit resolution in the last days of December, the US Election result ushering in a more cohesive calm style of government as well as global stock markets continuing to rally buoyed by world governments trying to heal the economic hardships of Covid.”
George Brooksbank, founder and CEO of Fairway Capital, said the market has continued to show its resilience amid further government restrictions, particularly in the £5-10m price bracket where transactions in 2020 were at their highest level since 2016.
“When travel restrictions ease, we can expect overseas buyers to return to the market as their spending power has been restored by a rebound in stock and commodity prices.”
Brooksbank said global economic uncertainty typically encourages a flight to quality and prime Central London’s safe-haven status and associated prestige asset class has always attracted global wealth.
”The fund bought very well in 2020 and has a strong pipeline. This places the fund on a firm runway to develop the assets, with the assistance of a first-class development partner in Leconfield, and to derive maximum value as we move through 2021.”
Hans Prottey, head of Coutts investment club said: “Fairway is the type of business and opportunity we like to support and give our clients access to. Many saw this as an attractive alternative and more diversified proposition to building their own prime Central London portfolio.”
To read the digital edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
