Thriving Investments gains £100m for PRS expansion
ESG-focused fund manager Thriving Investments has secured a further £100m equity commitment from Universities Superannuation Scheme for its flagship private rented sector strategy.
Thriving Investments, formerly PfP Capital, said the commitment will boost its ambition to grow its Picture Living platform’s portfolio to more than 2,000 homes by the end of this year. It has also set a target to deliver 20,000 homes in the next decade, which would mainly consist of single-family homes.
The “socially conscious” fund manager underlined continued appetite from UK pension funds for exposure to income-focused real estate that “delivers long-term, stable returns”.
ESG-focused fund manager Thriving Investments has secured a further £100m equity commitment from Universities Superannuation Scheme for its flagship private rented sector strategy.
Thriving Investments, formerly PfP Capital, said the commitment will boost its ambition to grow its Picture Living platform’s portfolio to more than 2,000 homes by the end of this year. It has also set a target to deliver 20,000 homes in the next decade, which would mainly consist of single-family homes.
The “socially conscious” fund manager underlined continued appetite from UK pension funds for exposure to income-focused real estate that “delivers long-term, stable returns”.
Picture Living was set up as a £330m joint venture between USS and Thriving Investments in 2018. Since its launch, the PRS platform has amassed a portfolio of around 1,800 single-family and multi-family homes in the UK, circa 180 of which are under development.
The platform has a mandate to deliver high-quality, new or modern, predominantly single-family, homes for rent across the UK.
It focuses on schemes or portfolios comprising 30 to 80-plus homes. Touchstone, the property management business of housing association Places for People, which established Thriving Investments in 2017, manages the portfolio on a day-to-day basis.
Thriving Investments has a wider commitment to create and regenerate residential-led communities across England and Scotland through both an environmental and social lens, with every home in the portfolio targeting an EPC B or higher rating.
Last year, around £45m of original capital was committed on behalf of the Picture Living strategy to forward-fund more than 100 single-family homes for rent across four schemes in London and the South East.
Jamie Younger, fund manager for Picture Living, said: “This commitment extends our partnership with one of the UK’s largest pension schemes and reinforces our strategy to date as a differentiated fund manager with a social conscience, delivering much-needed single and multi-family home-led communities across the UK.
“Solving the UK’s rental crisis has become an issue of national importance, and one where it has become increasingly apparent that the solution to delivering homes at the scale and pace required lies with institutional capital and fund managers. Our focus now is to deploy the capital into new opportunities, leveraging our strong housebuilder relationships to grow the portfolio to more than 2,000 homes.”
Alex Turner, head of property at USS, said: “We continue to increase our exposure to asset types which provide resilient and stable cash flows that align with the long-term pension promises we make to our members, plus benefit from strong macro tailwinds in the sector. Picture Living complements our other investments in the living sector including PBSA, equity release, shared ownership and residential development lending.”
The news comes after findings by Savills published last month showed nearly £250bn will need to be invested in UK housing to solve the growing rental crisis, with 1m rental homes needed between now and 2031 to meet demand.
Image from Thriving Investments/FTI Consulting
