Grainger acquires £31m build-to-rent asset in Manchester

Listed residential landlord Grainger announced the acquisition of The Astley, a £31m build-to-rent asset in Manchester, on Wednesday.

The FTSE 250 company said the newly-acquired property, located in Manchester's Northern Quarter, consists of 135 fully-occupied homes, and enhanced its substantial Manchester portfolio, which includes around 1,700 rental homes in the region, including at Clippers Quay at Salford Quays and The Filaments near Spinningfields.

It said the acquisition was facilitated by its accelerated asset recycling programme.

The company sold an older 80-home private rented sector (PRS) asset in London for around £27m, allowing it to reinvest that capital into The Astley.

Its board said the move aligned with its strategy of focusing on higher-yielding, purpose-built rental properties within key cluster locations.

Grainger's operational portfolio currently stood at around £3.4bn, encompassing around 11,153 rental homes.

Additionally, the firm had a £1.5bn pipeline for developing a further 5,000 purpose-built rental homes.

“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,” said chief executive officer Helen Gordon.

“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.”

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.