CA Ventures commits £500m annually to UK and Ireland student housing

US developer CA Ventures is planning to invest £500m (€567.3m) a year to develop purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) in the UK and Ireland.

The Chicago-based firm said it plans to invest the amount annually by 2021 and will also be entering other European markets with commitments in its development pipeline of £300m a year in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

CA Ventures, which is established in the US student housing market, is targeting £1.3bn in ground-up development starts in Europe over the next 3 years.

As part of the European launched the company has unveiled three UK PBSA development schemes – in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Sheffield – totalling 888 beds.

Carlo Matta, head of Europe, CA Ventures, said outside of the US, the UK is the largest destination for international students but remains severely under-supplied with purpose-built student accommodations.

“The UK government’s recent extension to residency rights for international students, post-graduation, is a great signal to the global student community. We see a significant opportunity in the UK, Ireland and continental Europe, to deliver a modern, high-quality student living experience.

“Limited supply, increasing obsolescence of older product and growing university enrolment has created a very favourable supply/demand dynamic, and we at CA Ventures have invested heavily in building out a development and property management infrastructure to execute our long-term growth plan.

“Across commercial real estate product types, we feel that student accommodation offers some of the best risk-adjusted returns given the ability to satisfy demand from both domestic and international students.”