LaSalle Investment Management Scales UK Local Authority Mandate to £1B With £300M+ Capital Expansion

LaSalle Investment Management has grown an existing mandate within its direct UK Custom Accounts business through a further capital allocation of more than £300 million, the firm announced Sept. 2, 2026. The additional commitment, made by a longstanding local authority pension fund client, will bring the total assets under management across the client's portfolios to £1 billion once the capital is fully deployed.

Mandate Expansion Follows Sustained Outperformance

The client's decision to allocate additional capital follows a sustained period of outperformance of its balanced property portfolio managed by LaSalle, with the mandate consistently exceeding its benchmark over the medium and longer term. Since the start of 2024, LaSalle has completed seven asset sales and three acquisitions on behalf of the pension fund, with investment focused on inflation-linked, long-income assets.

The new capital will target similar inflation-linked, long-income assets, as well as residential properties and assets with more active business plans across all sectors.

"This additional allocation is a strong vote of confidence from a client we have successfully partnered with for many years," said Philip La Pierre, Head of Europe at LaSalle. "It reflects the consistent outperformance that our UK Custom Accounts team has delivered across market cycles. Growing this mandate to the £1 billion mark is a significant milestone, and one earned through our track record, our active approach to portfolio management and our highly scalable model for managing direct UK custom accounts — combining LaSalle's investment expertise with property-level asset management delivered through JLL's Asset Management Services platform."

JLL Asset Management Services Provides Property-Level Support

The mandate's property-level asset management is delivered by JLL's Asset Management Services platform, which has supported LaSalle's direct UK Custom Accounts business since 2024. Under the structure, LaSalle provides portfolio-level investment strategy while JLL's Asset Management Services handles property-level asset management.

Sophie Simmonds, Managing Director, UK Custom Accounts at LaSalle, said the expanded mandate will continue investing in high-quality, income-generating assets. "Custom accounts provide institutional allocators with a tailored approach to real estate portfolio construction, while benefitting from LaSalle's global platform, its rigorous governance, and best-in-class expertise in research and sustainability," Simmonds said. "Globally, we manage over $30 billion in custom account AUM, and we believe this format is particularly attractive in today's market, where investors are seeking customised solutions that offer resilient incomes and compelling returns."

Strategy Reflects Broader UK Pension Fund Trends

The mandate's focus on inflation-linked, long-income assets aligns with a pattern among UK local authority pension funds, which have increasingly used long-lease property to match long-duration, inflation-linked liabilities alongside gilts, corporate bonds, and infrastructure. The expanded remit into residential and assets with more active business plans suggests a tilt toward sectors where local authorities have strategic interests.

The active trading activity — seven disposals and three acquisitions since early 2024 — points to a rotation strategy in which assets are sold and proceeds reinvested into income-focused opportunities. UK property funds have broadly returned to positive performance in recent periods, with balanced funds delivering mid-single-digit annual returns and long-income strategies performing toward the higher end of that range, providing a supportive backdrop for the client's decision to scale its allocation.

LaSalle's Global Custom Accounts Platform

LaSalle Investment Management is a subsidiary of JLL and manages US$86.8 billion of assets in private and public real estate equity and debt investments globally as of the first quarter of 2026. The firm's custom accounts business globally manages more than US$30 billion in AUM. The firm's client base includes public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, corporations, endowments, and private individuals.

The £1 billion milestone for this particular UK mandate represents a significant scaling of an existing separate account relationship, underscoring the firm's positioning as a custom account manager for institutional real estate capital in the United Kingdom.

Sources

LaSalle Investment Management — LaSalle scales UK local authority mandate to £1B with additional £300M+ commitment (Sept. 2, 2026)