Purchased as part of the recapitalisation of a fund managed by Spanish asset manager Azora, which will continue to manage the assets and has a minority stake in the venture, CBRE GIP and Madison said they would look to grow the venture.

The portfolio consists of 65 primarily mid-market apartment block buildings of which around 70 percent are located in and around Madrid, with the balance in other key cities, they said.

"The residential rental market in Spain is very fragmented, making this portfolio and its critical size unique to act as a major consolidator in the sector," Alexander van Riel, Head of Continental Europe at CBRE Global Investment Partners.

"This investment is in line with our key strategy – to focus on urbanisation and demographic trends in supply constrained markets – and increases the CBRE GIP residential sector exposure in Europe."

(Reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Maiya Keidan)