The Northern Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has invested in a new fund created by Macquarie Asset Management’s UK build-to-rent (BTR) business Goodstone Living.
Goodstone Living said it has launched its first UK BTR residential fund, Goodstone Living Partners 1, with over £550m of investment capacity, including leverage.
Goodstone Living Partners 1 – an Article 8 fund, under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation – secured its equity investments from a number of UK and international investors including Northern LGPS, Goodstone Living said, without disclosing further details.
IPE Real Assets understands that Northern LGPS is a majority investor in the fund seeking to develop rental residential communities across London and major regional UK cities.
The £46bn (€53.2bn) Northern LGPS brings together Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Merseyside Pension Fund and West Yorkshire Pension Fund, making it the largest of the eight LGPS pools, which were created after the UK government sought to consolidate local authority pension money to help boost infrastructure funding.
Goodstone Living said the fund’s initial portfolio comprises almost 1,000 homes already under construction in Edinburgh and Birmingham. The fund will also be the primary vehicle for Goodstone Living’s pipeline of development and turnkey opportunities until its capital has been substantially allocated, the manager added.
Kevin Etchells of Greater Manchester Pension Fund on behalf of the Northern LGPS, said: “We are delighted to announce Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s commitment to Goodstone Living Partners 1 alongside our Northern LGPS partners, West Yorkshire and Merseyside pension funds. This partnership already has two developments underway in Birmingham and Edinburgh and we are excited to see the portfolio develop further.
“The UK has an acute undersupply of housing and Greater Manchester Pension Fund is proud to contribute to help solve this whilst also hopefully obtaining attractive risk adjusted income returns.”
Iliya Blazic, CEO of Goodstone Living, said: “The successful launch of our first managed fund and ability to attract high-quality institutional capital partners speaks to the confidence global investors have in the underlying fundamentals of the build-to-rent sector, as well as Goodstone Living’s vision of creating a better way to rent.”
James Bechely-Crundall, SVP at Macquarie Asset Management, said: “Our investment in Goodstone Living on behalf of our managed funds is aligned to our strategy of establishing and incubating specialist real estate managers in sectors we believe are supported by significant structural tailwinds.
“We believe that a scalable market opportunity exists in the UK rental residential sector and that Goodstone Living is well positioned and has the capability to promote decarbonisation initiatives and create social value in the local communities in which it operates.”
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