Cording Real Estate Group, a member of the Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate investment management platform, has secured the fifth investment for its £400 mln (€473 mln) Cording UK Residential Investment Fund, which invests in the private rented sector (PRS) on behalf of Continental European investors.
The fund has agreed to forward fund a development of up to 160 apartments by Aimrok Development on the site of Wellington House in the centre of Leicester, UK.
Planning consent has been obtained for the conversion of Wellington House, a 52,673 sq ft (4,900 m2) building that was built in the 1970s on the site of an old newspaper printing works and hosiery in Wellington Street. A planning application has been submitted for an additional 64 new-build units to be constructed on the roof and in the courtyard increasing the overall size of the development to 160 units.
If the larger, 160-unit Wellington House development is implemented, the total forward funding package will be £24.5 mln. Construction, which will be carried out by Stepnell, will commence this month and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
The acquisition of the Wellington House site follows closely from the fund’s fourth investment last month, when it agreed to forward fund a build-to-rent development by High Street
Residential on part of the site of the former Kent Street Baths in the centre of Birmingham for £49.7 mln.
The Cording UK Residential Investment Fund was launched in August 2018 with equity commitments of more than £100 mln from German institutional investors. Cording is in the process of raising an additional £150 mln of equity commitments from Continental European institutional investors. Using leverage, the fund will have £400 mln to create a diversified portfolio of PRS assets.
