UK’s largest pension fund acquires homes from Blackstone in £405m deal

The UK’s largest pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), has acquired 3,000 homes from Blackstone for £405m.

Sage, an affordable housing company, purchased the portfolio of shared ownership homes. It was established in 2017 and is predominantly owned by Blackstone, along with real estate investor Regis.

The 3,000 homes are spread across the Home Counties, the South East, Midlands, London, and other regions.

It marks Blackstone’s first sale from its UK residential portfolio, which totals around 20,000 homes.

Sage Homes has committed around £3.7bn to fund the development of 22,600 affordable rent and shared ownership homes, with over 17,000 already delivered.

James Seppala, head of real estate Europe at Blackstone, said: “Through Sage Homes which was established in 2017, Blackstone has been the largest provider of newly built affordable housing in the country for the last three years.

“By deploying capital to fund the development of new homes, we are proud to have created an institutional grade portfolio which has, in turn, attracted more long-term institutional capital into the sector. This transaction will allow us to continue to invest capital into Sage Homes to help alleviate the structural undersupply of housing across the U.K.”