CA Ventures and Harrison Street have expanded their UK student-housing joint venture into Ireland.

The alternative real estate investment managers are to build a 623-bed purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) community in Cork that will be managed by CA’s in-house PBSA management company, Novel Student.

The announcement comes nine months after the launch of their UK joint venture, which began with four developments in London, Edinburgh, Leicester and Beflast.

The latest development in Cork city centre is intended to be completed in time for the 2023/2024 academic year.

CA and Harrison Street estimate that demand for student beds in Ireland outstrips supply by almost three to one and expect demand to grow by 9% over the next four years. 

Carlo Matta, head of Europe for CA, said: “The closing of this transaction allows us to capture additional unmet demand in Cork as we expand our footprint in Ireland to deliver a total of 1,500 beds across the UK and Ireland.”

Paul Bashir, CEI of Harrison Street’s European business, said: “CA is a key partner with whom Harrison Street has worked for over a dozen years in the US and more recently the UK, and we are excited to expand our partnership with them as we continue to identify attractive PBSA opportunities in top-tier university cities across Europe.

“This development represents an exciting opportunity to provide much needed modern PBSA accommodation to Cork’s underserved university housing market.”