LaSalle Investment Management has secured the first deal in a £1bn push into the private rented sector.
The fund manager has forward purchased the 292-flat Forbes Place scheme in Aberdeen from Dandara to seed the new platform, which will invest “in excess of £1bn” in the medium term.
The deal will deliver Scotland’s first large institutional PRS scheme, according to the developers.
Dandara will develop Forbes Place on behalf of LaSalle.
LaSalle’s push into PRS follows the appointment of Andrew Stanford as UK residential fund manager in April.
Prior to joining the fund manager, Stanford had led the government’s PRS taskforce.
At LaSalle he devised a strategy which will see it build a portfolio of purpose-built rental properties on behalf of a range of clients.
He said that LaSalle would target forward-funding deals generating an initial rate of return of 8-9% over a 10-year period on schemes of at least 80 homes.
“From a location perspective, we are focused on outer London and also looking at key regional markets that have good growth potential over the long term,” he added.
Forbes Place forms part of the historic Stoneywood estate in oil-rich Aberdeen.
LaSalle is the latest in a wave of institutions pouring into PRS. A recent survey of investment houses by Savills identified a collective ambition to invest more than £30bn in UK PRS, of which investment managers represented around £10bn.
The appetite for stock far outweighs availability, however, with just £2bn of PRS stock currently under construction or ready to start.
