Chicago-based developer CA Ventures has announced plans to expand to Europe and said it intends to spend $500 mln (€406 mln) in the European housing market over the next five years.
The company, which owns a $6.7 bn portfolio comprising student housing, multifamily and senior living communities throughout the US, plans to focus on the student housing and multifamily apartment sectors.
'CA has been an innovator in student housing in the Americas for over a decade and, as a team, we’ve been evaluating the European housing market closely for several years,' said Tom Scott, CEO of CA Ventures. 'We believe the market for purpose-built student housing in Europe is poised to benefit from growing university enrollments, increasing consumer adoption and a very limited supply of amenitized housing. As we are more than just capital, our capabilities as a vertically integrated developer and operator uniquely position us to bring our successful model to Europe, capitalizing on the scale and depth of these markets.'
The firm is currently developing two student housing projects in Poland – 700 beds in Krakow and 400 beds in Warsaw – and is in active negotiations to acquire properties and development sites in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Ireland and the Czech Republic.
'Across the geographically diverse markets in which we do business, student preferences are actually quite similar despite cultural nuances,' added JJ Smith, president of CA Student Living.
According to Smith, Poland is a particularly attractive European market with strong enrollment growth from locals as well as students from other countries due to its high-quality, cross-discipline university programs offered in English. CA estimates that while nearly 50% of the 2 million university students in Poland do not live with their parents, there are less than 200,000 student housing beds currently available, much of it functionally obsolete.
'Broadly across Europe, less than a third of all students currently live in purpose-built student housing, so we see tremendous runway,' said Smith.
