Macquarie partners with BTR veterans for £1bn UK debut
Australian investment bank Macquarie is planning its first foray into the UK’s burgeoning build-to-rent industry in a £1bn splash with the founders of Essential Living.
Macquarie aims to raise £1bn in equity alongside its own contribution this year. The fund will be managed by BTR veterans Darryl Flay and Martin Bellinger.
The pair agreed a platform partnership at the end of last year and are in the process of setting up a dedicated fund management business to acquire and oversee the portfolio. It will target schemes across the UK, including London, and is already closing in on its first acquisitions. All parties declined to comment.
Australian investment bank Macquarie is planning its first foray into the UK’s burgeoning build-to-rent industry in a £1bn splash with the founders of Essential Living.
Macquarie aims to raise £1bn in equity alongside its own contribution this year. The fund will be managed by BTR veterans Darryl Flay and Martin Bellinger.
The pair agreed a platform partnership at the end of last year and are in the process of setting up a dedicated fund management business to acquire and oversee the portfolio. It will target schemes across the UK, including London, and is already closing in on its first acquisitions. All parties declined to comment.
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets is the world’s largest infrastructure asset manager with real estate assets under management of $17bn (£12bn) across 500 properties. The bank made its first UK commercial property purchase in 2014 with the £19.3m acquisition of the Tavis House office block in Bloomsbury, WC1.
Macquarie has previously advised Fizzy Living, Grainger and Westfield in the UK BTR sector. It backed Fizzy Living’s launch with £40m in debt, but has yet to make any equity investments in UK BTR.
Commitment to the UK is a sign of confidence for the emerging asset class, which last year saw a 30% rise in investment, while other asset classes have shrunk during the pandemic.
Flay and Bellinger’s Essential Living was one of the first BTR operators in the UK when it launched a decade ago. M3 Capital Partners teamed up with Flay, Bellinger and Scott Hammond to develop some of the first BTR schemes in the UK, targeting a portfolio of 3,500 homes.
Since then, Flay and Bellinger have held consultancy roles advising residential developers. Former Essential Living managing director Hammond went on to launch his own BTR developer Eutopia Homes, targeting unconsented land in the regions for mixed-tenure BTR development.
In the past decade, as the sector has matured, blue chip investors and multinational banks have gained confidence. Macquarie’s launch into BTR follows recent commitments from Goldman Sachs, AXA IM’s first BTR buy and ongoing commitments from Allianz and Local Pensions Partnership providing £410m for the expansion of Get Living.
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