Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has raised £26 mln (€33 mln) in development finance from Investec Bank for a student accommodation project in Glasgow.
This is Balfour Beatty's first project for the direct-let market as a developer of student accommodation. Balfour Beatty's developer role includes site purchase, planning, design, construction and operation of the scheme, together with direct letting of the rooms and student management elements.
The project will feature 536 bedrooms, split over two blocks around a central courtyard containing 149 self-contained studios and 387 bedrooms in cluster flats at Kennedy Street in Glasgow.
Construction work on the new residences commenced in November 2015 and the project is scheduled for completion in July 2017.
'It is very rewarding to be supporting Balfour Beatty in this exciting new venture given it is the first time they are developing and directly letting a student block. We were attracted to work with Balfour Beatty given their size, profile and track record as a contractor. Notwithstanding signs of yield compression, we still like the student accommodation market and our appetite remains strong to provide stretched senior development finance for the right deals such as this,' said Mark Bladon at Investec Structured Property Finance.
