Texas Teachers, GIC Join Wall Street Hunt for U.S. Rental Homes

A U.S. public pension fund and a sovereign wealth fund are joining forces to hunt for profits in Sun Belt rental houses.

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas and Singapore’s GIC Pte formed a joint venture with Toronto-based Tricon Capital Group Inc. to acquire as many as 12,000 rental homes, according to people with knowledge of the deal, who asked not to be named because it’s private. Each of the three partners has pledged $250 million, allowing the venture to acquire about $2 billion of houses, according to a June 27 statement from Tricon that described the joint venture but didn’t name the partners.