US private equity firm Harrison Street Real Estate Capital has raised €135 mln in equity capital at the first close of its maiden European student housing opportunity fund.
US private equity firm Harrison Street Real Estate Capital has raised €135 mln in equity capital at the first close of its maiden European student housing opportunity fund.
The fund, dubbed Harrison Street European Property Partners I, has a target of €300 mln and will focus on the acquisition and development of student housing properties throughout the UK and Europe.
The fund is the sixth closed-end opportunistic fund to be launched by Chicago-based Harrison Street, the company said in a statement.
'The UK and European student housing markets offer a unique opportunity to generate attractive risk adjusted returns for our investors, similar to what we have experienced over the past decade in the US,' said Christopher Merrill, co-founder and CEO of Harrison Street.
Rob Mathias, a principal of the firm, will oversee the fund having spent over a decade living and working in real estate in the UK and Europe.
The fund's investment strategy will be in line with the approach already used by Harrison Street in the US, where the company has become the largest private equity investor in the student housing market over the past decade.
The firm has acquired, developed and sold more than 60,000 beds, representing over $4 bn in gross student housing real estate throughout over 80 universities in the US.
Similar to the firm’s US student housing strategy, Harrison Street plans to source and partner with operating partners on its UK and European investments. The firm has an initial pipeline of properties in the UK, Ireland and Germany.
Harrison Street Real Estate Capital is a real estate private equity firm founded in 2005 that directly and through its affiliates, has $7.6 bn in assets under management.