Franklin Templeton today announced the acquisition of five assets for its social infrastructure fund and said the fund has an €800m acquisition pipeline.

The Franklin Templeton Social Infrastructure Fund (FTSIF) has acquired a student housing, a healthcare centre and a University campus and a forward purchase student housing in Italy and a UK student housing facility leased to the University of Nottingham for an undisclosed sum.

The fund made its first investments in January last year with the acquisition of a justice courthouse in Madrid, a medical clinic in London, and an elderly care facility in a suburb of Milan and has since acquired further assets. 

In total, the real estate impact fund has now acquired 17 assets for €355m since its launch in July 2018.

The company said FTSIF’s manager Franklin Real Asset Advisors has a strong pipeline of over €800m investments across Europe and expects to transact on additional assets in the coming months.

The open-ended FTSIF fund invests in core, income-producing assets located in, or around, large communities in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK.

Raymond Jacobs, FRAA managing director and portfolio manager of the fund, said: “The fund’s dual return objective of delivering a market core real estate return together with a social and environmental impact has found great interest from a wide variety of investors.

“The COVID-19 crisis has made people more aware of the lack of investment opportunities in social infrastructure across European communities. There is just not enough public money available and private capital, such as that provided by our fund, has a key long-term role to play alongside public capital.”

Riccardo Abello, director and portfolio manager for FRAA, said: “The portfolio has proven its defensive nature with a 98% rent collection and a WALT of 15.3 years, providing investors with long term, contracted and predictable income streams.

“We’re finding many opportunities to directly increase the quantity and quality of social infrastructure and have a solid pipeline of over €800m investments across Europe.”

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