Buy-to-let property fund appoints managing agent Touchstone

Thursday 2nd August 2012

Managing agent Touchstone has been appointed as the property management firm for the UK’s first authorised residential property fund, the TM Hearthstone UK Residential Property Fund, which received FSA approval last month.
 
The new fund, set to launch later this year, is initially aimed at individual investors with a minimum investment of just £1,000 and aims to purchase property assets of £250m throughout the UK in the first two years. It is also being made available to institutional investors as an alternative to investment in commercial property.
 
Touchstone, which has ARLA, ARMA and RICS credentials and has offices in London, Bath and Milton Keynes, already provides nationwide support for some of the UK’s largest residential landlords.

Touchstone CEO Tim Saunders said: “The rise of the buy-to-let sector shows that there is a real appetite for investing in homes at the moment.

“This tracker-style fund opens the opportunity out beyond the stereotypical private landlord and allows the individual investor to spread their risk, and will hopefully kick-start commercial investors to consider the residential market.”