Investment Funds
Sigma enables its partners to invest at scale and efficiently in the Build-to-Rent Sector in the UK. This capability is founded on Sigma’s unrivalled residential property delivery and management platform.
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Sigma’s Suburban Single Family and Multifamily BTR Portfolio
In 2021 Sigma Capital Group plc was acquired by pan-European private equity specialist PineBridge Benson Elliot.
The acquisition has enabled Sigma to deliver its next phase of growth. Sigma required consistent access to capital to invest in scale into the BTR sector and grow the business through forming new house builder partnerships, expanding operations into new regional markets and widening its rental product offering.
The acquisition has accelerated the delivery of these strategic benefits to Sigma’s business at a rate which would be otherwise difficult to achieve as a standalone AIM-quoted company.
PineBridge Benson Elliot has built a track record of acquiring and scaling real estate investments in Europe in close partnership with talented and driven management teams.
The acquisition has brought clear strategic benefits in delivering the shared ambition of developing large scale and high-quality single-family homes at affordable rents in the UK, and that its financial and operational backing could therefore give Sigma greater scale to invest in the growing residential rental market on its own balance sheet – aiming to achieve 15,000-20,000 new homes over the next 5 years.
PineBridge Benson Elliot is a UK-based, FCA-regulated fund manager with c.$3.2 billion of managed equity and holds a diversified real estate portfolio, currently comprised of office, retail, hotel and residential assets in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Central Europe.
All Sigma and PineBridge properties are taken to market and managed through Sigma’s Simple Life Homes brand.
Sigma is the founder and architect of The PRS REIT plc, the first quoted Real Estate Investment Trust (“PRS REIT”) to focus on family houses for the BTR sector.
Investors in the PRS REIT include global financial institutions, local authority pension funds, private wealth managers, as well as Homes England, the public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
Listed on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in May 2017, the PRS REIT moved to the Premium Segment of the Main Market in March 2021. The PRS REIT aims to provide investors with an attractive level of income, and capital growth, through investment in a portfolio of newly-constructed, residential PRS sites of multiple units. Sigma’s subsidiary, Sigma PRS Management Ltd, is an Investment Adviser to the PRS REIT. It is responsible for advising the portfolio manager on the deployment of The PRS REIT’s funding capacity to invest in the creation of a substantial portfolio of new-build family rental homes in accordance with the PRS REIT’s investment policy. It sources suitable investments and development sites, oversees the planning and construction processes, and maintains the PRS REIT’s assets.
The PRS REIT has achieved its target of £1bn+ assets. Sigma’s pipeline for new homes continues to grow.
In March 2023, Sigma reached its 5000th property milestone for The PRS REIT plc.
Sigma PRS Management Ltd is an appointed representative of G10 Capital Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:648953).
Sigma has its own rental brand, ‘Simple Life’, through which the new homes for The PRS REIT plc are let. The brand has been created to set a new gold standard in the private rental market. Visit the Simple Life UK consumer website: simplelifehomes.co.uk
All properties for The PRS REIT plc are taken to market and managed through
Sigma’s Simple Life Homes brand.
SIGMA’S FIRST LONDON MULTIFAMILY BTR FUND
In September 2020, Sigma announced the launch of a Joint Venture with EQT Exeter, the real estate platform of global investment firm EQT, focused on new-build homes for private rental in Greater London.
The Joint Venture is being supported by Homes England, the housing agency of the UK Government, and has committed
c.£600m of GDC (Gross Development Costs) to c.1,500 units to date.
The JV has invested in new, high quality build-to-rent residential apartment blocks in more affordable parts of Greater London. They are predominantly located in transport Zones 3-6 and in close proximity to transport links, including train access to central London.
Sigma has its own rental brand, ‘Simple Life London’, through which the new homes for EQT are let. The brand has been created to set a new gold standard in the private rental market. Visit the Simple Life London consumer website: Simple Life London
Thistle Investments LLP and UK PRS Properties Fund
Our first large-scale delivery of new rental homes was launched at the end of 2014 for Gatehouse Bank plc.
Under the venture, we delivered 918 new homes across 15 sites in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool area in a little over two years, completing the last home in March 2017.
A second large-scale delivery was launched in December 2015 for UK PRS Properties fund, a fund principally supported by the Kuwaiti Investment Authority and institutional shareholders from the state of Kuwait. We delivered 750 new properties across nine sites for this programme, completing it at the end of 2018. 1602 of the homes built within the portfolios were procured through our house building partner, Countryside Properties, the remaining properties were built by Vistry Group.
A dedicated lettings brand, DifRent, was established exclusively for these portfolios, of which UK PRS Properties still resides.