(Bloomberg) -- The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and private equity firm Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC are partnering to develop purpose-built rental housing around London and its suburbs in a deal valued at up to 2.2 billion pounds ($2.9 billion). 

Greystar also confirmed that it is buying London rental housing business Fizzy Living from Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, according to an emailed statement on Thursday. The purchase will see the U.S. residential real estate investor taking over management of almost 1,000 homes. 

The U.K.’s purpose-built rental housing market is attracting greater investor interest as a sustained lack of housing supply in the country makes renting more attractive. Those pressures are particularly acute in London and its surrounding commuter towns, where Greystar and ADIA will build their pipeline, starting with a seed asset in the south London neighborhood of Battersea. 

“Demographic trends and a severe structural undersupply of housing is driving demand for high quality rental homes in the U.K.,” said Mark Allnutt, Greystar’s senior managing director in Europe. “This remains a high conviction investment strategy for Greystar.”

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