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 mark.faithfull@bisnow.com.
Aviva Investors has agreed to forward-fund 101 single-family homes in Cambridge, continuing its development partnership with Packaged Living.
The homes, which will be delivered by housebuilder Barratt Homes, will form part of the Franklin Gardens community in the Darwin Green master plan on the northwest edge of Cambridge. Darwin Green is expected to deliver more than 1,500 homes, a primary school, a health centre, a supermarket, sports facilities, community spaces and parks.
A mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom houses and two-bed apartments, the 101 new homes are expected to provide more than 105K SF of housing and will be fully electric with vehicle charging for each home and photovoltaic panels.
The funding is the ninth investment in the UK single-family housing market by Aviva Investors and Packaged Living since launching their build-to-rent platform in 2021.
“We have a clear strategy to increase our investment into rental housing across the UK, including an ambition to deploy more than £1B in the coming years,” Aviva Investors Head of Real Estate Investment James Stevens said in a statement. “Franklin Gardens is another example of that commitment. We think it is a fantastic opportunity to support the delivery of housing into a dynamic region of the UK, which is well-positioned for growth and provide long-term returns for investors.”
FINANCE
Cheyne Capital and Regal have formed a joint venture to finance a purpose-built student accommodation development on High Road in Wembley.
The development will comprise two buildings with a total of 998 bedrooms, and the project includes gardens, greened streetside terraces, a gym, a multi-use studio, a lounge, a dining room, study spaces and a community studio space to rent.
The project, which marks Cheyne’s sixth partnership with Regal, will target BREEAM Excellent and an EPC A rating, and construction is expected to begin later in 2024 and is due to be completed in time for the start of the academic year 2027-2028.
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Legal & General has launched the L&G Affordable Housing Fund alongside a £125M commitment from local government pension scheme Access, a collaboration of central, eastern and southern shires composed of 11 local government pension scheme administering authorities. The vehicle aims to deliver a diversified inflation-linked cash flow for investors.
The fund will focus on equity and affordability, L&G said, and the homes will align with Legal & General’s commitment to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050.
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Sirius Real Estate has raised £150M from a new share placing, with investment giant BlackRock now holding 11.1% of the expanded stock.
“We now look forward to investing the proceeds into our identified pipeline of attractive acquisition opportunities across both Germany and the UK, and to utilising our operating platform to add value to these assets, while contributing to growing annual FFO to our €150M per annum medium term target,” Sirius Real Estate CEO Andrew Coombs said in a statement.
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Westwind Capital has closed its first investment vehicle with several European institutional investors, including an anchor commitment from CBRE Investment Management.
The vehicle closed capital commitments to fund the acquisition of an unnamed portfolio of London living sector properties.
Westwind Capital was formed in 2022 to focus on real estate in the life sciences and living sectors, including purpose-built student accommodation, build-to-rent, and micro-living and co-living in major UK and European markets. Westwind founder and CEO Daniel Gorzawski was previously head of Europe for Harrison Street Real Estate.
“This portfolio investment is a highly attractive opportunity at a moment when assets have repriced and values for London residential appear to have bottomed out, while fundamentals continue to be strong,” Gorzawski said in a statement.
DEALS
LondonMetric Property has sold five properties in separate transactions for a combined £26.7M, reflecting a 6% profit over 31 March book values, according to the company.
The retail and office sales comprise a 51K SF convenience-led retail asset in Weymouth for £14.3M, a 19K SF office in High Wycombe for £3.9M, a 15K SF office in Halesowen and adjacent land for a combined £3.2M, an 11K SF drive-thru site in Birstall for £4.1M and a 1,400 SF high street retail unit in Kingston for £1.2M.
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South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, advised by Abrdn, has bought 50 new-build apartments for private rental at Springfield Place in Tooting, south-west London.
The homes were built by and acquired from Barratt London, part of Barratt Developments, and comprise a mix of one-, two- and three-bed homes, with 22 parking spaces and a private central landscaped courtyard. Ringley will be leasing and managing the scheme.
Newmark company Gerald Eve advised SYPA and Abrdn.
PLANNING
Investment adviser Delancey has secured planning to develop a 200K SF gross internal area commercial building for office, laboratory and research space from Islington Council.
Designed by architect Kohn Pederson Fox, the site will include 130K SF of research and laboratory space, 13K SF of affordable workspace, events space, flexible makerspace and public realm improvements.
The development is targeting NABERS 4.5 stars, and the office space will be BREEAM Outstanding.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Property consultancy Rapleys has acquired West End specialist agency Mellersh & Harding, Rapleys’ fifth acquisition in two years, following planning consultant CSJ in 2022, commercial and portfolios specialist Aston Rose and residential consulting specialist s106 Affordable Housing in 2023, and building consultancy specialist Bluebrick earlier in 2024.
Mellersh & Harding is a multidisciplinary commercial property consultancy with a focus on central London offices.
Mellersh & Harding’s clients include institutions, property companies, corporates, and high net worth individuals, such as Emirates, Fever-Tree, Aspect Capital, National Friendly, KF Asset Management, Crafts Council and Chatham House.
LEASING
Specialist innovation real estate platform Mission Street and investor BGO have signed biotech firm Nucleome Therapeutics for 20K SF on a 10-year lease at Inventa, a purpose-built commercial science scheme in central Oxford.
Nucleome Therapeutics is relocating its Oxford HQ to accommodate its expansion plans with fitted labs and offices within the 65K SF building.
Oxford’s West End has a long-term pipeline of more than 2M SF of commercial and academic buildings, and Mission Street secured planning consent in December for the West End’s second phase, known as Fabrica. Construction on the 183K SF, five-storey scheme is due to start in September.
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BauMont Real Estate Capital and YardNine have agreed on the prelet of 12K SF at Edenica, the 90K SF Grade A office development at 100 Fetter Lane in the City of London, to specialist litigation firm Boies Schiller Flexner.
The deal is the first prelease ahead of the building’s completion in Q4, and Boies Schiller Flexner will occupy the 10th to 12th floors in the development.
Edenica is 100% electric, and the building has natural ventilation, roof terraces and a new public garden. The scheme design by Fletcher Priest Architects and Waterman Group means it is the first project in the UK to adopt material passporting and a dedicated approach to whole-building life cycle analysis, according to the companies.
PEOPLE
Newmark has appointed Steve Williamson as managing director and Matthew Kang as associate to Newmark’s debt and structured finance UK and EMEA capital markets team in London. The pair will work with Michael Lehrman, president of Newmark UK, and Matthew Featherstone, Newmark’s head of debt and structured finance for the UK and Europe.
Williamson previously served as chairman of debt and structured finance for CBRE. For 13 years, he led debt origination for the UK and EMEA. Kang also previously worked at CBRE following a career in banking.
“Steve is one of the longest serving debt advisory veterans in the UK, and his expertise in leading complex, large-ticket transactions, as well as his extensive UK banking experience, will be an incredible complement to the team,” Lehrman said in a statement.
