The £40bn ACCESS LGPS pool has appointed Aviva Investors to manage a £250 million long-lease property mandate. This mandate will be handled by Aviva Investors on behalf of the Lime Property Fund, which specialises in cross-sector property investments in the UK. These investments are designed to provide inflation-linked or fixed rental uplifts with leases extending over 15 years.

Councillor Mark Kemp-Gee, chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, commented, “The demand for alternative income from our partners is likely to increase considering the current environment, so this is an important addition to the ACCESS Pool’s suite of alternative funds.”

Jill Barber, chief distribution officer at Aviva Investors, highlighted the Lime Property Fund’s strong track record in delivering low-volatility, inflation-linked returns.

ACCESS, comprising 11 LGPS Administering Authorities, includes councils from Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Norfolk, West Northamptonshire, Suffolk, and West Sussex.

The pool’s asset consolidation efforts initially focused on listed markets but are now gradually expanding into less liquid assets such as property. Last month, Essex County Council and Hampshire County Council, two of the fund’s administering authorities, made the first commitment to the Pool’s new property solution, committing a combined £1.3bn to two property mandates managed by CBRE Investment Management.

ACCESS’ latest commitment to the Lime Property Fund offers its administering authorities access to a Jersey-registered open-ended real estate fund managed by Aviva’s Renos Booth and Kris Mcphail. The portfolio includes 83 holdings, ranging from retail properties to UK office spaces and industrial properties.

According to the fund’s factsheet, it has performed -15%, slightly better than other open-ended real estate funds, which returned -17%, reflecting a challenging outlook for real estate, partly due to higher central bank base rates.

Aviva Investors, the asset management arm of Aviva plc, operates in 14 countries and manages £227 billion in assets as of the end of 2023.