CA Ventures (CA) has closed the sale of its initial portfolio of 897-beds purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) assets in the UK for a combined transaction value of £161 mln (€192 mln).
The three assets are being acquired by funds managed by Apollo Global Management.
The announcement comes after the three communities across Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh reached 100% leased in their first year. All leasing and marketing efforts were managed by CA’s in-house PBSA operating platform, Novel Student (Novel).
‘Only three years after establishing our European headquarters in London, our initial PBSA portfolio has driven our swift success across three leading UK cities for students, and its record-value sale represents a strong validation of our investment thesis centered around a prime offering,’ said Carlo Matta, head of CA’s European operations. ‘This milestone was made possible by the vertical integration of our expert team, who successfully managed the land acquisition, delivery, 100% lease up, operations and sale of this state-of-the-art portfolio despite the ongoing challenges presented by the global economic environment. With another 6,000 beds across Europe in our development pipeline and the backing of institutional capital, I couldn’t be more excited for the future of CA’s European operations.’
CA plans to deliver another 1,000 beds across, Edinburgh, Leicester and Belfast to serve students during the 2022/2023 academic year, all of which will be managed by Novel. CA has also announced joint ventures to expand its PBSA portfolio and the Novel platform to Ireland, Spain and Italy.
PGIM Real Estate provided financing solutions to CA to support the development of the three sites. ‘We are pleased to have supported CA in their inaugural PBSA development in the UK through our PGIM Real Estate Capital (PRECap) platform, the European flagship high yield debt fund series,’ said Mathew Crowther, PRECap senior portfolio manager at PGIM Real Estate.
‘The significant level of interest in this portfolio demonstrates both the high quality of assets that our client created and continued investor interest in the resilient UK purpose-built student accommodation market,’ said Sonia Wang, associate director of Savills Capital Advisors, who advised the seller.
