Legal & General in partnership with Dutch pension fund manager PGGM has acquired land in the centre of Brighton in order to deliver the city’s first ever Build to Rent (BTR) development. The deal marks the seventh UK city to which it will bring its new rental offer.
Located 200 metres from Brighton train station, the site, which is currently occupied as industrial space, will see 200 homes and up to 3,000 m2 of commercial space developed, subject to planning approval.
'Brighton is a vibrant city where people want to live and work. This acquisition represents a rare opportunity to acquire land in an unrivalled location and to deliver the first institutional-grade BTR scheme,' commented Dan Batterton, BTR fund manager at LGIM Real Assets.
'Our successful venture with Legal & General continues to materialise at pace through a range of BTR-development programmes across the UK,' said Mathieu Elshout, senior director private real estate at PGGM.
'Brighton has a severe housing shortage and our investment will help address this by creating a highly sustainable and high-quality BTR offer for the city.'
Legal & General’s BTR platform now has a pipeline of almost 2,000 homes, with the aim to have 6,000 in planning, development or operation by the end of 2019.
So far, the insurer has raised pension fund capital for an open-ended BTR fund alongside a £600 mln (€682 mln) joint venture between Legal & General Capital and PGGM.
It now has sites in Leeds, Bristol, Bath, Walthamstow, Birmingham, Salford and Brighton
