London-based Amro Real Estate Partners is seeking a €300m investment partner to target student housing opportunities in Spain and Portugal.
The specialist student housing and build-to-rent (BTR) investor said it has appointed CBRE Spain to search for a joint venture partner to access the full potential of the market in Iberia.
Amro said it has plans to create a 5,000-bed investment platform spanning the Iberia region through development, refurbishment, forward purchase and acquisition.
Amro, which has experience of developing and operating student accommodation and BTR assets in the UK, has opened its first European office in Madrid, Spain. Amro has been involved in the development of over 20,000 beds in the UK student housing sector.
The asset manager has also made its first investment in Granada, Spain, with the acquisition of a 360-bed property that will open in 2020.
“A strong pipeline of further transactions has been established with around 3,000 beds currently under negotiation, of which 1,300 are under exclusivity across both Spain and Portugal,” it said.
Amro’s Iberia pipeline spans ten cities.
Raj Kotecha, a managing director at Amro, said: “The student housing market in Southern Europe shares characteristics with the UK student housing market of 10-12 years ago with demand for purposed built accommodation significantly outstripping supply and competition from professionally managed schemes being limited.
“This is a market still very much in its infancy and we believe our entry timing is ideal. We have an ambitious and well-formulated investment strategy with a strong pipeline of schemes underway. Working with a joint venture partner who shares our perspective on the market opportunity will allow us to execute this strategy with speed.”
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