Hermes Investment Management and UK services group Countrywide have announced the launch of a new UK residential property fund for institutional investors after raising £95 mln (€132 mln) of commitments from cornerstone investors.
Hermes Investment Management and UK services group Countrywide have announced the launch of a new UK residential property fund for institutional investors after raising £95 mln (€132 mln) of commitments from cornerstone investors.
The open-ended fund, named Vista, will offer institutional investors access to the UK private rented sector (PRS) and will be managed by Hermes’ recently announced fund director, Philip Nell, working with the Hermes and Countrywide teams.
It will target modern, purpose-built residential stock across the UK, with a bias towards regional towns and cities with strong underlying economies. The fund will cap its Greater London exposure to a third of the overall portfolio.
Vista has already invested in three assets in Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham, with a combined value of £13 mln.
'The UK PRS sector has delivered attractive, risk-adjusted returns over recent years and we believe that it will continue to perform in a market which is facing a chronic mismatch between demand and supply,' commented Chris Taylor, CEO of Hermes Real Estate. 'This demand for PRS is further underpinned by demographic and lifestyle trends and coupled with a shift towards greater urbanisation, long-term institutional capital invested in PRS can play a key role in delivering much-needed new housing supply. This, coupled with the low correlations and strong returns relative to other real estate sectors and asset classes make UK PRS an attractive portfolio diversifier for institutional investors.'
