Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and The Scion Group are investing $1.6bn (€1.49bn) in US student housing.
The Scion Student Communities partnership, created by the trio early last year, has bought three US student housing portfolios with 29 underlying assets.
CPPIB and GIC each own a 45% interest in the three portfolios and Scion the remaining 10%.
“The US student housing sector is an attractive investment opportunity, driven by secular strength in enrollment growth and favourable supply dynamics,” said Hilary Spann, managing director, head of US real estate investments at CPPIB.
“Achieving scale in this sector is an important global investment objective for CPPIB.”
Adam Gallistel, regional head of Americas at GIC Real Estate, said: “These high-quality, revenue-generating assets are good additions to our global student housing portfolio.
“We remain confident in this sector’s long-term fundamentals.”
One of the portfolios comprises six class-A properties located primarily in the southern US and was bought for $385m.
A second, purchased for $640m, includes 11 class-A properties in university markets across the US.
The third was made up for 12 assets already owned by Scion and recapitalised by the joint venture partners.
Scion Student Communities now invested $2.9bn in 48 assets in 36 US markets.
