Ascend appointed on single-family BTR mandate

Ascend Properties, the UK’s leading manager of single-family build-to-rent (SFBTR) assets, has been appointed by global investment firm Carlyle to manage a new national portfolio.

Under the new mandate, Ascend will oversee all leasing and property management activity across the growing portfolio, which recently completed its first acquisition of 288 homes.

The instruction follows the recent appointment to the same role by the Start Living platform, joining similar mandates from a number of industry-leading SFBTR portfolios. With responsibility for 7,000+ homes, Ascend is the UK’s largest manager of SFBTR, overseeing over two thirds of the entire asset class. The firm’s multifamily and buy-to-let capabilities bring the number of homes under its management to over 10,000.

SFBTR specialist Gatehouse Investment Management acquired the first homes for the new portfolio on behalf of Carlyle. Of the 288 homes bought in the deal, the first 66 have already been completed with the remainder due to be delivered over the next year.

Ged McPartlin, managing director of Ascend Properties, added:

Single-family BTR is an increasingly vital part of the UK’s housing mix. Our unrivalled experience, alongside our investments in proprietary technology, is defining what good management looks like, and we are hugely excited to be working on this new major mandate.