Winckworth Sherwood has advised London & Quadrant Housing Trust (‘L&Q’) on the successful sale of its Private Rented Sector (‘PRS’) business alongside Pinsent Masons and Knights.
The sale completed on 16 June 2026 to an investment fund managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (‘MSREI’) in partnership with Ridgeback Group (‘Ridgeback’) for a value of £1,045m.
The sale of L&Q PRS Co Ltd (which trades as Metra Living) is part of L&Q’s long-term strategy focused on simplifying its organisation, prioritising its core purpose as a social housing provider, and strengthening its financial capacity.
Metra Living owns and manages a portfolio of c. 3,200 homes within Greater London. The sale includes the transfer of Metra Living’s operational platform and team and its £300m of external debt facilities.
L&Q announced it was seeking buyers for its private rented homes in November 2024, leading to a robust and competitive tender process. The MSREI-Ridgeback partnership was chosen as L&Q’s preferred partner in June 2025. This reflected MSREI’s patient, long-term approach to investing in real estate, combined with Ridgeback’s extensive experience owning and operating rental homes in the UK.
The sale will ensure residents benefit from responsive, high quality services that offer best value for money, delivered by a specialist PRS landlord. It also establishes a long-term partnership, with L&Q continuing to provide freeholder services to PRS homes leased within its buildings.
The Winckworth Sherwood team brought together expertise from across the firm in corporate and commercial transactions, real estate, property litigation and construction. It was led by partner David Emery with Charlie Proddow, Ruby Giblin, Ed Swain, Mandeep Sahota, Suzie Smith, Liam Hale and Charis Beverton.
David Emery, Partner – corporate and commercial at Winckworth Sherwood, said: “This is a pioneering transaction within the private rented sector, ensuring that this important portfolio remains under the control of a specialist PRS landlord while allowing L&Q to focus on its core purpose as a social housing provider.
“The sale of Metra Living has called for the support of diverse and specialist teams across our team – bringing expertise from the social housing and private rented sectors, and from construction due-diligence through to corporate governance.
“This breadth of specialisms, together with our longstanding relationship with L&Q, has ensured that we’ve been able to work smoothly with all parties. We are delighted to have been able to see it to a successful conclusion.”
Martin Watts, Director of Treasury at L&Q, said: “We’re proud to have built a highly successful PRS business since entering the market in 2015 and the sale of Metra Living is a key milestone in delivering our long term strategy. I have no doubt that under the new ownership of MSREI, it will continue to go from strength to strength as a quality provider of rental homes in the UK.
“Our partnership with Winckworth Sherwood has been instrumental in allowing us to complete this large and complex transaction. They have provided exceptional support, strategic insight and a wide range of expertise working in collaboration with our teams and other advisors.”
“It’s been a genuine partnership to achieve this deal, they worked seamlessly alongside our teams, navigating large complexity with clarity and pace over a long period of time.”