UK real estate investment manager Moorfield Group (“Moorfield”) has acquired a portfolio of 32 new-build single-family for rent houses (SFH) in Alconbury, Cambridgeshire, for £10.5 million.
The newly constructed homes, which will be operated by Moorfield, form part of a 186 home development by Morris Homes, one of the UK’s largest independently owned housebuilders. Situated in Urban & Civic’s Alconbury Weald masterplan, where over 6,500 homes in the next 15-20 years are planned, the portfolio is located near to local essential amenities, with strong public and private transport connectivity to Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough.
The purchase was completed on behalf of MREIT, Moorfield’s private non-traded REIT established in late 2023, and represents Moorfield’s first SFH acquisition in Cambridgeshire. MREIT is one of the ‘Spokes’ in Moorfield’s Hub & Spoke model, where sector-specific side-car vehicles (Spokes) are seeded and receive co-investment from the ‘Hub’, MREFV, a diversified value-add fund.
Today’s announcement expands Moorfield’s combined SFH portfolio to over 600 homes and c.£200m in GAV, which includes newly built developments and individual houses in London and surrounding commuter locations Bristol, Bath and now Cambridgeshire, as part of a new targeting of the Oxford-Cambridge arc.
Across MREFIV, MREFV and MREIT c.160 new-build homes have been acquired through investments with Avant Homes, Curo, Keepmoat, Persimmon, and now also Morris Homes. This figure includes show homes, which were acquired through sale-and-leaseback transactions with the housebuilder.
As part of a three-pronged acquisition strategy, Moorfield:
1)Targets opportunities to partner with housebuilders to access high-quality newly built housing. This strategy targets acquiring 5-30 units per development, with multiple investments in each location to achieve clustering for management efficiencies.
(ii) Uses technology to identify and purchase homes in individual on-market transactions in addition to housebuilder acquisitions, with c.300 transactions completed to date
(iii) Acquires student HMOs, where the strategy has been to refurbish properties as part of enhancing the customer experience.
A key element of the strategy has also been to implement energy efficiency enhancements and EPC improvements.
Moorfield has been investing in the SFH sector since 2021 as part of a thematic focus on the Living & Storage sectors. Other target Living sectors include co-living, multi-family build-to-rent, purpose-built student accommodation, retirement living and nursing/care homes. Moorfield made its first investment in the Living sectors in 1997 and has invested in a total of c.13,000 homes since then.
Charles Ferguson-Davie, Co-CEO and CIO, Moorfield Group, said: “We continue to have high conviction in the single-family housing sector as part of our thematic focus on Living & Storage real estate in the UK. These asset classes are united by needs-based demand drivers and structural under-supply, with the potential for value creation through active asset management and delivering a better customer experience, and the ability to deliver inflation-linked rental growth.”
Joanne McGarvey, Regional Sales Director at Morris Homes, said: “”We are pleased to collaborate with Moorfield Group on this portfolio, which reflects the high-quality homes we are committed to delivering at not just Alconbury Weald, but all our developments.
“With growing demand for well-designed, energy-efficient homes in sought-after locations, we are proud to contribute to the flourishing single-family rental sector and provide high quality residencies.”