Fairway Capital, investment advisor to the Fairway Capital Property Fund, has successfully closed on a third round of fund-raising. The additional funds, sourced from institutions, family offices and high-net-worth individuals, will bolster purchasing power to make further acquisitions in the prime Central London (PCL) residential market.
The fund launched in March 2020 to take advantage of Brexit, with Covid providing further opportunity. It has since purchased 10 properties in Belgravia and Knightsbridge with a combined value of £70 mln (€81 mln) and is seeking to deploy a further £50 mln on further acquisitions for the fund.
The fund’s cornerstone investor, Catalyst Capital, has topped up on its initial investment, which, alongside the existing debt facility with Investec, reflects the ongoing interest from institutions into the PCL market.
Other investors include a number of high-net-worth individuals introduced by Coutts & Co, via its investment club, which supports the view that PCL remains attractive to investors seeking both safe haven status and the potential for significant 'value-add'.
Hans Prottey, head of Coutts Investment Club said: 'Fairway is the type of business and opportunity we like to support and give our clients access to. Many saw this as an attractive alternative and more diversified proposition to building their own PCL portfolio.'
With the introduction of a third national lockdown in the UK on 5 January, it is anticipated that the window of opportunity has briefly lengthened. Strategic purchasing now should place the fund in a strong position to maximise projected returns when the market recovers, Fairway said.
Fairway chairman James Goldie said: '2020 will be remembered as a harrowing year with seemingly daily negative news regarding Covid and its sad impact. Notwithstanding this, the fourth quarter of 2020 yielded better news around exogenous shocks that had been buffeting UK confidence.
'Covid vaccine breakthroughs and an early 2021 roll-out, a Brexit resolution in the last days of December, the US election result ushering in a more cohesive calm style of government as well as global stock markets continuing to rally buoyed by world governments trying to heal the economic hardships of Covid.'
George Brooksbank, founder and CEO of Fairway, added: 'Global economic uncertainty typically encourages a flight to quality and PCL’s safe haven status and associated prestige asset class has always attracted global wealth.
'The fund bought very well in 2020 and has a strong pipeline. This places the fund on a firm runway to develop the assets, with the assistance of a first-class development partner in Leconfield, and to derive maximum value as we move through 2021.'
