Allianz Real Estate (RE) has acquired a 21.5% stake in the UK’s largest private rental sector (PRS) platform.

Get Living is behind East Village in London, an Olympic legacy site

Get Living is Behind East Village in London, An Olympic Legacy Site

Allianz RE made the investment in the Delancey Oxford Residential Door fund on behalf of other Allianz companies.

The Door fund owns 39% of Get Living, the UK’s leading build-to-rent operator of large-scale residential neighbourhoods and the UK’s biggest PRS platform.

Dutch asset manager APG and Qatari Diar are other co-owners of Get Living.

The investment by Allianz brings Door’s equity commitments to £1.2 bn (€1.3 bn), which also includes £150 mln (€166 mln) from Local Pensions Partnership and a £250 mln (€277 mln) commitment from Swedish pension fund Alecta, made in March this year. The capital will be used to invest in Get Living’s existing pipeline and future acquisition opportunities.

Get Living currently has around 2,900 PRS units - 89% of which are in London. It has a pipeline of around 4,500 units to be developed over the next five years in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds.

Allianz Real Estate said the PRS sector in the UK is highly attractive, driven by positive demographic trends, a demand/supply imbalance, and affordability issues boosting demand for rentals. Meanwhile, Covid-19 has underscored the strength of the sector, with collection rates having held steady for listed UK and European PRS companies, the company added.

Kari Pitkin, head of business development for Europe at Allianz RE, said: 'The UK continues to be a core market for Allianz Real Estate, and we are focused on increasing our exposure in London through the living segment and the office sector. We continue to build on a broader UK exposure to the logistics segment.

'We believe our local team of experts places us at an advantage to source high-quality investments and we expect continued activity across 2020 and into next year.

'We have a strong belief in the multi-family sector in gateway cities across the globe and the UK’s living segment is no exception. This investment in Door is very complementary to our Chapter portfolio of student housing across London.

'We are delighted to be increasing our exposure to the asset class through a market-leading, prime investment vehicle with a strong track record.’