Norfolk, East Sussex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire county councils have joined ACCESS Pool’s new pooled property solution.
ACCESS Pool said the six UK local authorities have joined Essex County Council and Hampshire County Council in pooling their real estate holdings to invest in the ACCESS UK Core Fund and the ACCESS Global Indirect Fund.
The ACCESS UK Core Fund is expected to reach a target size of £1.7bn (€2bn), while the ACCESS Global Indirect Fund’s target size is £780m.
ACCESS Pool said the investments have increased the total aggregate target size to nearly 40% more than originally anticipated during the initial tender stage.
In November last year, ACCESS Pool, which manages £45bn of UK local government pension scheme (LGPS) assets, appointed CBRE Investment Management to manage domestic and global real estate mandates. At the time, ACCESS said it was the first step in launching a pooled real estate investment proposition for its 11 partner LGPS funds.
Councillor Mark Kemp-Gee, chairman of the ACCESS joint committee, said: “We now have a total of eight of our administering authorities making significant investments to ACCESS’s property solution, further demonstrating the benefits of the pooling model.
“Our member authorities can realise a number of positives – in this case, a unified approach, diversification and cost efficiencies – to the ultimate aid of their investment objectives for members.”
Hannah Marshall, CIO for UK direct real estate at CBRE IM, said: “We are pleased to have delivered a real estate solution to ACCESS’s administering authorities that provides the cost-saving benefits of pooling, and the specialist transition expertise required to execute the build-up of these funds.
“With a further six authorities making commitments to the pool’s property solution, bringing a total of £4.1bn of real estate assets under ACCESS pool governance, we look forward to working with ACCESS to build and manage a real estate portfolio that generates both sustainable income and long-term value.”
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