This Week's London Deal Sheet
The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email [email protected].
Real estate fund manager PfP Capital and Housing Growth Partnership, an equity investor backed by Lloyds Banking Group, have announced a joint venture to deliver residential-led, urban communities across the UK.
Targeting the construction of up to 1,200 sustainable homes, with a gross development value of circa £390M, the JV will see HGP and PfP Capital both commit equity. The JV will focus on urban communities across an initial 10 major UK regional city sites over the next three to five years. Leverage will be used on a scheme-by-scheme basis.
igloo Regeneration, the B-Corp developer acquired by PfP Capital in January, will be responsible for developing the schemes, master-planned by PfP igloo, a long-term partnership between PfP Capital and igloo Regeneration in collaboration with local authority counterparties.
The first scheme to be brought forward is the initial phase, totalling 78 townhouses, of a 400-home development at Dundashill, in Glasgow, including a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes for sale.
A further nine PfP igloo sites, in regional cities including Nottingham and Newcastle, are currently in the pipeline.
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Later living specialist Pegasus, part of the Lifestory Group, has announced a significant move toward becoming solely a build-to-rent developer and operator.
Having secured a significant investment loan facility with Barclays, Pegasus currently has a pipeline consisting of six new development sites across the country, creating over 300 new homes, due to start construction in early 2024.
These new communities will be available solely for rent those over 60. This is on top of its existing 26 later living communities that already offer rental as a tenure option.
Lifestory has engaged Savills to source a strategic investment partner to assist in funding the future rental-only schemes.
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Grosvenor has created a £120M residential development debt strategy. Led by the investment team in its UK property business, the strategy will further diversify its £800M regional investment portfolio, by financing projects across a broad range of residential tenures.
Its first transaction, a senior loan facility of circa £33M to DWS Group, is supporting the delivery of 316 homes to rent in Bath.
Grosvenor is expanding its regional presence, which includes the 42-acre Liverpool ONE retail and entertainment destination and a growing regional office portfolio.
Grosvenor will make funding available to developers bringing forward a range of residential-led projects, including market sale, build-to-rent, affordable housing, student housing and senior living, providing loans up to £30M per transaction.
“Despite economic uncertainty and interest rate rises, we believe the housing market continues to be underpinned by a significant under-supply," Grosvenor Property UK Executive Director Investment Rachel Dickie said. "Through our debt strategy we are bringing together our capital and expertise to back high-quality projects like Bath Junction, that meet housing need and can demonstrate strong sustainability credentials.”
DEALS
Nuveen Real Estate has acquired a self-storage portfolio in the UK from Easistore on behalf of its European Value Add strategy.
Nuveen will partner with operator Storage King for the portfolio, which comprises four assets totalling circa 240K SF of predominantly modern, bespoke, purpose-built properties, located across the south-east of England including Crawley, Edenbridge, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.
The partnership with Storage King has seen the parties enter into a joint venture, with Storage King taking a minority stake in the JV and contributing 10% of the equity capital. The portfolio will be branded and managed by Storage King under its third-party management platform, Management 1st.
In February, Nuveen announced the first and second closing of its pan-European diversified value-add strategy, providing the venture with €450M of dry powder. This is the first acquisition in line with the strategy’s approach of targeting value-add opportunities initially focusing on urban logistics, housing and alternatives.
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Northamptonshire-based builders merchant Travis Perkins has completed the £23M sale and leaseback of seven sites in the Midlands and the South of England — with the news coming two months after the firm revealed profits had dropped over 20% last year.
The firm said the sale of the properties, which have been acquired by funds managed by Longmead Capital, was part of an ongoing strategy to recycle capital from its freehold portfolio to invest in “destination branches with an enhanced range of value-added services.”
The majority of the sites, which are located in Folkestone, Leicester, Loughborough, Redditch, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Worcester, were purpose built for the company. All seven sites have been let back to Travis Perkins on 15-year lease agreements.
