Franklin Templeton has added five assets to its social infrastructure impact platform in Europe.

The acquired assets include a nursing home in Madrid; special education schools in London and Manchester, job centres in Barcelona and Dortmund as well as a student housing facility in Copenhagen.

The platform was launched in July 2018 and managed by Franklin Real Assets Advisors (FRAA). The latest deal lifts the platform’s assets to 22 worth more than €560m.

Raymond Jacobs, FRAA managing director and portfolio manager, said: “We are pleased with the progress of the social infrastructure strategy since its launch in July 2018 and the three-year track record of investing with a dual return objective.

“The strategy seeks to deliver a market core real estate return together with a social and environmental impact. The covid-19 pandemic has shown that public investment alone is not sufficient to support adequate social infrastructure, and this sector has emerged as an important, institutional-scale opportunity to align portfolios with societal benefits and achieve competitive financial performance.”

Klaus Schmid, director and head of acquisitions for FRAA, said the manager is finding many opportunities to directly increase the quantity and quality of social infrastructure and have a solid pipeline of over €1bn investments across Europe.

“We expect to announce further asset acquisitions during this year.”

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