The Lambeth Pension Fund, one of the UK capital’s 32 local government pension schemes (LGPS) that make up the London CIV asset pooling company is investing in an affordable UK housing fund.
Lambeth Pension has approved the commitment to the London CIV UK Housing Fund, an open-ended vehicle planning to raise over £250m (€284m) in its first close at the end of next month.
The Housing Fund’s investment will include general needs social and affordable housing, specialist housing and transitional supported housing, London CIV said, adding the fund expects to complete its first deal in the second quarter of the year.
Councillor Adrian Garden, chair of the pension committee at the London Borough of Lambeth said: “Lambeth Pension Fund has for many years sought to invest in a fund that would increase the amount of social and affordable housing in the UK.
“With the setting up of the LCIV UK Housing Fund we are delighted that we are able to achieve that aim whilst meeting our fund’s wider objectives of diversification, impact, and securing long-term income.”
Christopher Osborne, a senior portfolio manager at London CIV said: “We too are delighted to have received our first client fund approval from the London Borough of Lambeth to invest into the LCIV UK Housing Fund.”
Osborne said the Housing Fund will offer its client funds diversification from other property markets and “generate resilient income that is often supported by the government” and typically tracks inflation.
“Our focus will be on meeting our underlying client fund return requirements and addressing the structural supply/demand imbalance in the housing sector that is being compounded by the current cost of living crisis.
“In addition, a large component of our investment due diligence process is assessing underlying housing managers’ effectiveness to generate, measure, and report impact,” Osborne said.
London CIV, established in 2015, is one of eight UK LGPS asset-pooling companies. Its clients include the London boroughs and the City of London.
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