UK-based fund manager Arlington Advisors has launched the fundraising for a new flagship £400 mln (€454 mln) student accommodation fund and has appointed Rothschild & Co as lead advisor.
The Arlington Student Accommodation Fund (ASAF) will focus on investment opportunities in the UK's Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) sector by targeting high-quality student accommodation assets, close to university campuses in city centre locations.
ASAF will be seeded with a portfolio of PBSA assets currently owned by Arlington Investors to provide incoming investors with a day one running yield and a platform from which to grow the portfolio.
The seed portfolio comprises over 8,000 student beds, across 15 assets, in 10 primary UK cities including London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. The portfolio is let both directly to universities and on a private-pay basis and benefits from high occupancy rates.
In addition to the seed portfolio, Arlington Advisors expects to deliver between 1,500 and 1,800 additional beds to the fund per annum providing investors with a projected gross asset value of a further £150 mln per annum. All assets within the fund will be managed by third-party student accommodation operators.
Arlington Advisors’ ASAF team will be led by managing director, Sean McKeown, who was previously commercial director of Campus Living Villages (CLV) Europe and was responsible for growing CLV’s UK business into the fifth largest owner / operator of PBSA in the country.
George Shweiry, founder and chief executive of Arlington Advisors, said: 'Our investment and operational model is underpinned by an outstanding track record, placing us in an excellent position to establish our new fund to provide investors with a diversified PBSA portfolio with strong income and growth characteristics.'
Founded in 2012, Arlington Investors is currently the largest independent owner of off-campus student accommodation in the UK not tied to a single operator.
