L&G acquires build-to-rent residential portfolio

Legal & General has exchanged contracts to acquire and redesign the Deansgate tower in Manchester for its build-to-rent portfolio, taking its development pipeline in the city to more than 750 units. The move adds to a series of recent build-to-rent transactions and partnerships across regional UK locations.

Legal & General entered the build-to-rent sector in 2016 with an investment capability of around £1.3bn, including an £800m joint venture with Dutch pension investor PGGM, and a pipeline of more than 3,300 homes across ten schemes in cities including Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh. As of December 2022, its portfolio comprised 15 schemes in 11 cities, totalling over 5,000 apartments backed by £2.0bn of investment and the £800m joint venture.

In March 2025, Legal & General, Nest and PGGM acquired the first build-to-rent site in their partnership in New Jackson, Manchester, to deliver 494 purpose-built rental apartments. The Nest, L&G and PGGM build-to-rent partnership, launched in September 2024, is intended to grow to up to £1bn and builds on their Access Development Partnership formed in 2016, with L&G having deployed over £3bn into build-to-rent and delivered more than 10,000 rental homes.

Legal & General has also agreed a partnership with Miller Homes to deliver 260 single-family build-to-rent homes in Northamptonshire. In the suburban segment, it acquired a build-to-rent scheme in Great Haddon, Peterborough, to deliver 117 new homes.

In Leeds, Legal & General acquired a build-to-rent site that took its total pipeline to more than 1,400 units, with an expected gross development value of £420m. The Deansgate tower acquisition in Manchester adds to this regional pipeline, with the redesigned scheme contributing more than 750 units in that city alone.

Timing for further acquisitions or scheme completions under these various partnerships and pipelines has not been specified.