Grainger splashes £31m on The Astley
M&G has sold the five-year-old Manchester build-to-rent scheme on Great Ancoats Street.
Grainger has bought the 135-home The Astley for £31m, using cash from the recent sale of an 80-apartment asset in London for £27m.
The Astley is a “higher yielding asset within one of [Grainger’s] strategic cluster locations”, according to an update to shareholders on the London Stock Exchange.
The Astley joins Clippers Quay and The Filaments, both in Salford, in Grainger’s 1,700-home Greater Manchester portfolio.
Overall, Grainger boasts a £3.4bn operational portfolio comprising more than 11,000 homes.
Helen Gordon, chief executive of Grainger, said: “The Astley is an excellent acquisition. A stabilised, income-producing, high-quality build-to-rent asset of 135 homes within our existing Manchester cluster, supported by our ongoing asset recycling programme.
“Today’s acquisition is earnings accretive and reflects the increasing number of opportunities we are seeing in the market to acquire existing build-to-rent assets.”
M&G forward funded the development of The Astley, which completed in Q1 2019, to the tune of £27.6m. The project was the investor’s first foray into North West BTR.
M&G was contacted for comment. CBRE advised M&G on the deal.
