Harrison Street Asset Management (HSAM) has sold a 12-property US student housing portfolio for $910m (€784m) to affiliates of The Scion Group and a global institutional investment manager.
The transaction is the largest student housing portfolio sale completed in 2026.
The portfolio, amassed over the past decade and spanning five HSAM fund vehicles, includes 12 properties totaling 7,578 beds across 10 states and 12 universities, including Arizona State University, Auburn University and the University of Florida.
The transaction reflects HSAM’s focus on acquiring or developing high-quality individual properties across alternative real estate sectors, enhancing operational performance, and strategically exiting via diversified portfolios that represent compelling scaling opportunities for institutional buyers.
Christopher Merrill, co-founder and global CEO at Harrison Street Asset Management, said: “The transaction represents one of the largest student housing portfolio dispositions in recent years and underscores the continued depth of institutional demand for student housing exposure, driven by durable fundamentals, constrained new supply, and strong enrollment trends at leading universities.”
“Building on our decades of experience in the sector, we will continue to invest in high-quality student housing properties near leading universities, while evaluating strategic portfolio sales that deliver compelling outcomes for our investors.”
Harrison Street Asset Management is one of the largest private owners of student housing globally. Since inception, the firm’s alternative real assets platform has invested over $24bn across 431 student housing properties, totaling more than 237,000 beds throughout North America and Europe. During this same period, the firm sold 252 student housing properties for a gross cost of approximately $11bn.
HSAM and Scion have completed multiple large-scale transactions together since 2017, including a nearly $900m student housing portfolio sale in November 2024.
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