Curlew Student Trust (CST) has secured a £47.7 mln (€55.8 mln) loan from Investec to develop a student housing scheme in London.
The 24-month senior debt facility will finance Mannequin House, a 527-bed Grade-A accommodation unit in Walthamstow, east London, up to its completion in July this year and for an initial 18-month investment period.
The loan takes Investec's financing of purpose-built student accommodation projects in the UK to more than £350 mln in three years.
Mark Bladon, of Investec Structured Property Finance, said undersupply in the sector in London, where the ratio of students to available beds was recently calculated at 4.19, made new purpose-built student housing an attractive prospect for investors.
He said: 'The student accommodation sector remains one of the most attractive asset classes for investors, as the UK faces an ongoing supply demand imbalance in certain sub-markets.
'This facility, which straddles both the development phase and an investment period, allows us to commit to the scheme as it becomes income generating and we look forward to working alongside one of the sector’s most successful and respected investors.'
Brett Robinson, director at Curlew Capital, the Investment Adviser to CST, added: 'Development of the scheme is ahead of schedule with the marketing suite open for potential tenants to view. We are seeing good interest from universities keen to secure what we believe will be an exemplary scheme for their students.'
