Grainger and APG have launched GRIP REIT, the UK’s largest residential rental REIT.
The REIT replaces the 75:25 joint venture the pair launched in 2013 to invest in the private rented sector. GRIP has a £600m portfolio concentrated in London and the South East.
Grainger chief executive Helen Gordon said: “This is part of our overall strategy to increase Grainger’s exposure to the private rented sector.
“This is how we prefer to do it because it is via co-investment. In London the lot sizes are a lot bigger, and it is a good way for Grainger to get diversification across a number of large assets.”
The partners will invest £400m into the REIT by 2020, increasing the portfolio’s value to more than £1.1bn across 3,000 rental homes.
Ian Fletcher, director of real estate policy at the British Property Federation, said the formation of the REIT, which will not initially be publicly traded, was “a reflection of the maturity of the wider build-to-rent institutional investment market”.
λ Sarah Slater, former director of real estate investment, Europe, at Canadian pension giant CPPIB, has been appointed to the board of GRIP REIT alongside representatives of Grainger and APG.
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