Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) has announced the launch of a £2.7 bn (€3 bn) UK property fund, the largest of its kind.
The Royal London UK Real Estate Fund (RLUKREF) invests in UK commercial property across all major sectors (industrials, offices, retail warehouses, shopping centres) and regions and is designed to provide domestic and foreign institutional investors exposure to the UK commercial real estate market.
Fully seeded by Royal London, the fund invests in prime UK properties, over two thirds being in London in locations including New Bond Street, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street and St Paul’s.
The fund is suited to clients with a long term investment horizon, so that a pipeline of property development projects can be carried forward and clients can reap the long term benefits, RLAM said. The required initial investment is £50 mln.
Drew Watkins is the lead portfolio fund manager for the fund and Stephanie Hacking is the deputy portfolio fund manager.
'This fund launch is a vote of confidence in the UK and its real estate market. There are few places in the world with as many prime real estate assets as London, and we believe its property market presents an attractive opportunity for domestic and foreign institutional investors,' commented Piers Hillier, chief investment officer at RLAM.
The fund invests in properties such as:
-111-117 and 120-122 New Bond Street
-103, 149/151 and 470-482 Oxford Street
-Kingsley House, Wimpole Street
-9-12 Bow Street/57-59 Long Acre
-1/3 St Pauls Churchyard
-Twentieth Century House, Soho Square
-Ham Yard Hotel
-Trafalgar Buildings
-Tunbridge Wells Shopping Park
-Westway Shopping Centre, Greenford
RLAM manages over 300 properties, worth £6.4 bn.
