The Royal London UK Real Estate Fund (RLUKREF) will invest in prime UK commercial properties across all major sectors, from industrials to offices and retail warehouses.
Over two thirds of the prime properties it backs are in London locations like New Bond Street, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street and St Paul’s but the fund can invest across all regions in the UK.
The launch comes at a time when investor confidence in UK property remains shaken.
Weeks after last year’s EU Referendum, several of the largest open-ended property funds were forced to suspend trading following an unprecedented level of outflows.
However, Piers Hillier (pictured), chief investment officer at RLAM, argued that the immense interest in the RLUKREF is a sign that the outlook on the sector is changing.
“This fund launch is a vote of confidence in the UK and its real estate market,” he said.
“There are few places in the world with as many prime real estate assets as London, and we believe its property market presents an attractive opportunity for domestic and foreign institutional investors.
“The long-term outlook for UK property remains attractive and the prime nature of this offering provides an excellent opportunity for long term investors to gain exposure to a high quality and well diversified property portfolio.”
Drew Watkins, senior fund manager at RLAM added: “This launch gives institutional investors a unique opportunity to access a significant number of quality property assets which are not often traded, and especially not within a single investment fund.”
RLAM said the fund is best suited to clients with a long-term investment horizon to allow for the maturity of a pipeline of property development projects.
The required initial investment is £50m.
