Dutch pension fund manager APG has partnered with Scape to establish a £500m (€579m) UK student housing venture seeded with a £250m mixed-use project.
Student housing group Scape has recently been expanding into urban city living apartments and the latest partnership with APG is expected to help Scape’s expansion plan into mainstream living as it takes the living concept to a wider market.
The newly created APG and Scape venture has been seeded with 1,000 purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) beds in London and the South-East, the £250m mixed-use residential and PBSA led development scheme in Canada Water, and the first Scape Living building in Guildford.
Currently, Scape’s portfolio has over 30,000 beds in operation and development across the UK, Australia and the US. Scape is targeting growth in excess of £2bn in the coming years.
APG said it will support Scape’s strategy to develop a further 10,000 beds in the UK over the next five years, including a 788-bed development at London’s Canada Water.
The pair, together with Allianz Real Estate already have an ongoing Australian student accommodation partnership, which bought Urbanest’s A$2bn (€1.3bn) student housing portfolio.
Robert-Jan Foortse, head of European real estate at APG Asset Management said: “On behalf of our pension fund clients, we are pleased to announce the enhancement of our successful relationship with Scape that started for APG as founding investors of the Australian Scape venture.
“We look forward to building on this global partnership with Scape by supporting its UK expansion.”
Nigel Taee, Scape’s founder and global chairman said the firm’s student proposition is just the beginning for Scape.
He said: “We have ambitious plans for the next few years as we develop the Scape offering and start to move into new territories. Scape Student has gone from strength to strength over the last 12 years.
”We will continue to develop this both in the UK and globally whilst also extending our proposition to provide quality accommodation for city dwellers with Scape Living.”
Tom Ward, Scape’s co-founder and global CEO, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with APG on the next stage of the roll-out of the UK business. Scape’s student proposition remains robust and we see significant potential in bringing our offering to a wider audience.
“This investment will help consolidate our position at the forefront of the PBSA market as well as enabling the extension into new sectors.”
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