M&G invests €41.7m in Dutch residential deal to develop 206 apartments

M&G Real Estate has made a forward-funding commitment to a €41.7 million ($45.1 million) build-to-rent scheme in Leiden, an academic and entrepreneurial hub in the Netherlands.

The deal is on behalf of the M&G European Living Property Fund — launched in January this year — and marks the fund’s first investment in the Netherlands.

The scheme, known as MORE5, developed by Amsterdam-based developer Lingotto, will consist of 206 multifamily apartments and 178,000 square meters (1.9 million square feet) of commercial space. Out of the total housing units, 184 will provide affordable rents, with 150 of them designated to university staff. Close to the city center, the development will be located in Leiden’s Bioscience Park, the largest pharmaceutical life sciences cluster in the Netherlands, home to 150 life science–related companies, university faculties, labs and research institutes and Leiden’s University Hospital.

The scheme will be eq