Investec has announced that it is opening its UK real estate equity strategy, Realis, to external investors as it targets value-add and opportunistic property deals in the lower midmarket.

Having launched in 2024, Realis has since completed nine transactions with a combined gross development value of £270M, backed by clients of Investec’s private banking and wealth management businesses.

Following the announcement, Realis will be available to eligible high net worth and ultra-high net worth investors, family offices and wealth managers investing on behalf of clients, the company said of the initiative.

Investec added that it anticipates that wealth managers and family offices will typically invest more than £1M per transaction on aggregate, while individual underlying clients will be able to invest from around £100K to £250K on a deal-by-deal basis as opposed to committing capital to a fund. This will provide access to deals too large for many private investors but below the scale typically targeted by larger institutional funds, Investec added.

It will also invest capital alongside clients in each acquisition, and the strategy will target opportunities across UK property sectors.

“Repricing across European real estate has created what we believe is an attractive entry point in the UK today,” Investec Head of Real Estate Equity Investments Yon Papageorgiou said in a statement.

The bank added that the UK market has become more attractive, with higher initial yields, prospective rental growth and further potential for yield compression supporting the investment case.

Realis sits within Investec’s wider UK Real Estate business, which offers real estate lending with value-add and opportunistic equity investment.

Recent deals include the joint acquisition with XLB of the 53K SF offices at 2 College Square on Bristol’s Harbourside. Realis is also working with Wrenbridge on a £50M development opportunity in north Cambridge for around 80K SF of flexible commercial space.