Legal & General : L&G invests in six-strong Build to Rent team

23 September 2016

LGIM Real Assets (L&G) has appointed a sixth member to its dedicated in-house Build to Rent (BTR) team as part of its plans to build high volumes of homes for renting which are suited to long term institutional money. The appointment of Katie Davis Maxwell (photo, right) from Countrywide PLC as Senior Asset Manager completes the initial formation of a core team with combined expertise in land buying, financial modeling, development management and asset management. The team will also draw on LGIM Real Assets' wider business with 150 real estate and infrastructure professionals in the UK.

L&G already has over 900 BTR homes in planning or under construction. Further sites are currently being actively targeted to support the growth of this important UK wide platform. Holding properties over the long term, L&G will be ultimately responsible for the development, management and operation of all its BTR portfolio, aiming to create a new market standard for elective renters.

Katie brings to L&G a wealth of experience in the BTR market, having previously managed the assets of the Vista PRS Fund, a dedicated residential property fund by Countrywide and Hermes. Prior to this she worked for Akelius Residential Ltd as Asset Manager of its residential portfolio. Reporting to Dan Batterton, the head of the BTR team, Katie will be responsible for the quality of customer service, ensuring that L&G's product is fully-focused on and provides a positive lifestyle choice for renters. Katie's appointment quickly follows the hire of Adam Russell as ‎Residential Transactions Manager from private rental landlord Fizzy Living.

Dan Batterton, Fund Manager BTR, at LGIM Real Assets, said: 'With the appointment of Katie, we have now assembled a dedicated, best-in-class Build to Rent team that allows us to add value to the acquisition, planning, development and operational stages of BTR investment. It is this team of professionals who will drive forward our ambitious plans to buy and manage sites as we focus on our initial delivery of 3000 homes for rent over the coming years. We have an exciting pipeline of further opportunities in place from which we will create bespoke, purpose-built, quality rental stock which is suited to long term institutional money. This kind of property does not currently exist in the UK and by us controlling all aspects of design and service delivery we can ensure that we are bringing top quality product to the market.'

L&G is looking to provide a new institutional class of specifically designed rental accommodation, which, based off fair value market rents, aims to deliver higher quality, customised space, together with a more professional and flexible standard of tenant service. Choosing to target well-located sites that benefit from good transport links and related infrastructure, L&G favours schemes where associated planning risk has been minimised but where there is still the opportunity to influence all aspects of design and construction from the start.

ENDS.

For more information please contact:

Faye Walters, PR Manager, LGIM Real Assets
Tel: 020 3124 2823

Notes to editors:

LGIM Real Assets:

LGIM Real Assets is a division of Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), one of Europe's largest institutional asset managers and a major global investor. LGIM manages £842bn in assets on behalf of over 3,200 clients (as at 30 December 2015), providing products and solutions spanning all asset classes. LGIM Real Assets, headed up by Bill Hughes, has AUM of £21.1bn (as at 30 June 2016) and is responsible for the division's direct investment capabilities in property and infrastructure. LGIM Real Assets is made up of three specialist divisions, Legal & General Property (LGP), its property fund management arm, LGIM Infrastructure, its specialist infrastructure lending and investment division, and Commercial Lending Limited (CLL), its commercial lending arm.

LGP is the fourth largest institutional property fund manager in the UK, managing or co-managing 17 separate funds or vehicles including three segregated mandates with an aggregate asset value of £17.7bn (30 June 2016). These funds include:

• Balanced Funds
  • Life Fund; Linked Pensions; Linked Life; Managed Fund; Legal & General UK Property Fund; UK Property Income Fund I; UK Property Income Fund II; LPI Income Property Fund and the Hybrid Property Fund
• Specialist Pooled Funds
  • The Leisure Fund Limited Partnership; Industrial Property Investment Fund; Arlington Business Parks Partnership; and the English Cities Fund
• Single Asset Vehicles
  • Bracknell Regeneration Partnership; Central Saint Giles Partnership.

LGIM Infrastructure has concluded 18 debt investments to date across all key infrastructure sectors and has a total AUM of around £1.6bn.

CLL has now invested a total of over £1.8bn across 19 deals. Transactions include eight loans to the social housing sector, two loans to the student accommodation sector, two hotel debt deals and two loans to the care home market.