AEW UK Impact is an open-ended property fund seeded with a diversified £100m portfolio of UK assets, including specialist supported living, key worker accommodation and care homes.
The portfolio also includes community and residential-led town centre regeneration projects.
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The launch of the fund followed FCA and investor approval to transition the AEW Real Return fund into this new strategy.
AEW is actively seeking to raise capital on behalf of the fund, targeting a range of investors from institutional and local government pension schemes through to private wealth.
The fund's impact framework is structured around "improving real world outcomes" by providing people in "underserved locations" access to real estate, funding developments and refurbishments that serve a societal need and ensuring the projects are "socially and environmentally sustainable".
Advised by The Good Economy, a social advisory firm with a specialism in impact measurement and management, the fund has adopted a bespoke impact management and measurement system to help it align with the best principles of impact investing.
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Nick Winsley, head of AEW UK, said: "The built environment has a huge influence on people's everyday lives and the launch of our first impact fund provides investors with an opportunity to invest in a way that creates both a tangible positive social and environmental impact, whilst also achieving their return objectives.
"Seeded with a portfolio of strongly performing assets, the fund is already delivering on its social value and cashflow objectives and we are excited to grow the fund from here."