Dutch asset manager APG and Grainger are converting their UK residential property joint venture into a REIT.
The pair’s GRIP Unit Trust joint venture, focused on the private rented sector (PRS) in London and the southeast of the UK, will become a real estate investment trust.
The vehicle, held 25/75 by Grainger and APG, will hold £600m (€716m) of PRS assets, making it the UK’s largest residential REIT.
Helen Gordon, chief executive of Grainger, said: “Combined with GRIP’s total earmarked investment, we hope to invest more than £1.1bn into much-needed housing in UK PRS by 2020.”
APG entered the UK residential property market in 2013, buying part of a £350m portfolio with Grainger.
The Dutch institution invested £158m in GRIP to buy part of G:res1, one of Grainger’s property funds.
Sarah Slater has been appointed as a director to the GRIP REIT board.
Slater was director of real estate investments in Europe at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
