Blackstone sells 3,000 homes to UK fund for £405 million
Blackstone has sold a portfolio of 3,000 homes to the UK’s largest pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme, for £405 million, in one of the biggest deals in the UK housing sector this year.
The portfolio of shared ownership homes was acquired from Sage Homes, an affordable housing company created in 2017 as a joint venture between majority-owner Blackstone and real estate investor Regis.
“Through Sage Homes, Blackstone has been the largest providers of newly built affordable housing in the country for the last three years,” said James Seppala, head of real estate Europe, Blackstone. “By deploying capital to fund the development of new homes, we are proud to have created an institutional grade portfolio which has, in turn, attracted more long-term institutional capital into the sector.”
The gap between supply and demand in the UK, combined with the new Labour government’s commitment to building more homes, has led investors to deploy more capital in the sector.
Blackstone’s residential portfolio in the UK has 20,000 homes and last month the private equity giant acquired 1,750 homes from housebuilder Vistry.
The proceeds from the latest sale will be reinvested into Sage Homes, Seppala said, “to help alleviate the structural undersupply of housing across the UK.”
Sage has committed £3.7 billion to fund the development of 22,600 affordable rent and shared ownership homes, of which 17,000 have already been delivered.
“Several years ago, we started on a journey to attract increasing amounts of institutional investment and capital into the sector,” said Alison Thain, chair, Sage Homes. “This sale is an endorsement of our strategy and proves our model, enabling continued growth and delivery of the homes that the country needs.”
The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the academia pension fund that acquired the portfolio of shared ownership homes, manages over £75 billion of assets. Shared ownership schemes aim to help people who cannot afford to buy a home outright to take on a share and get on the housing ladder, with the option of buying more shares over time.
