RCMP pension becomes a landlord
Fund teams up with U.S. firm to invest in southern U.S. real estate
PSP Investments, which manages pensions for Canadian public servants including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is making a bet on singlefamily rentals.
The Ottawa-based pension fund has teamed up with investment firm Pretium to launch a joint venture that will initially invest $700 million (U.S.) into single-family rental properties across major markets in the southeastern and southwestern U.S., including Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; Phoenix; and Raleigh, N.C.
Single-family rentals have become a hot commodity in recent months as the COVID-19
pandemic accelerates demographic shifts to the suburbs. With hotels, offices and shopping malls taking a hit from social distancing, institutional investors are betting on demand
for homes from American renters.
That’s encouraged investments in single-family rentals, including from JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset management arm to homebuilder Lennar Corp.
The new joint venture “demonstrates the increasing level of interest in single-family rentals from leading institutions,” Donald Mullen, founder and CEO of Pretium, said in a statement.
Pretium describes itself as the second-largest owner and operator of single-family rental properties in the U.S. Earlier this month, a partnership led by Pretium acquired single-family landlord Front Yard Residential for approximately $2.5 billion.
PSP wanted to partner with the firm because of its “proven track record of generating robust, uncorrelated returns by applying its specialized, resident-centric and scalable approach to its large and growing portfolio of homes,” Carole Guérin, a managing director at PSP, said in the statement.