LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Private equity giant

Blackstone announced on Tuesday it had sold 3,000

shared-ownership homes to Britain's biggest private pension

fund, in a sign of growing dealmaking by big money managers in

the UK housing sector.

Blackstone sold the portfolio to academia pension fund, the

Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which manages more

than 75 billion pounds ($96 billion) of assets, in a deal worth

405 million pounds ($519 million).

The sale is one of the biggest in the UK housing sector this

year, and comes after Blackstone agreed to purchase 1,750 rental

homes from housebuilder Vistry last month.

Shared ownership schemes enable people to buy part of a

property if they cannot afford to buy outright, with the option

of purchasing the rest in the future.

Major investors have been ramping up investments in British

housing, betting on long-term returns in a market where demand

far outstrips supply, at a time when the country's new Labour

government has committed to delivering more homes.

Blackstone said the portfolio was sold by its Sage Homes

vehicle - a housing joint venture with investor Regis that was

launched in 2017.

It was unclear how Blackstone intended to use the proceeds

from the sale, although it said the deal would allow it to

continue to invest capital in Sage Homes.

" have created an institutional grade portfolio which

has, in turn, attracted more long-term institutional capital

into the sector," said James Seppala, head of real estate Europe

at Blackstone.

($1 = 0.7811 pounds)