Milestone opens student housing in Graz, starts construction in Vienna and Budapest

Student housing specialist Milestone has announced the start of projects in Vienna and Budapest, weeks after opening a 378-bed scheme in the Austrian university town of Graz. The news also comes days before a major student accommodation conference in Amsterdam on 3-4 November.

Vienna-based Milestone opened the student accommodation scheme in Gaz, the second largest university town in Austria, on 1 October after a 10-month construction period.

Milestone opened its first centre, in Vienna, in October 2013 and two years on it has embarked on the construction of a 350-micro apartment student complex in the Viertel Zwei (Two Quarters) in the city centre. The scheme is located adjacent to the city’s largest park, the Prater, and is next to the Vienna University of Economics. The scheme is being developed by developed by IC Projektentwicklung and is set to open in 2017.

Both Milestone and IC Projektentwicklung are part of Austria family office Value One.

Milestone is also expanding into the Hungarian student market. The company this week announced construction had started on a 418-room property, Milestone Budapest, next to the Semmelweis Medical University, located two subway stations from the city centre.

The property is being developed by the Hungarian group Forestay. Each room will have its own bathroom and kitchen, and tenant facilities include a gym, study rooms, video rooms, a roof terrace, coffee shop, restaurant and bars.

'We are setting new quality standards for the Hungarian student housing market,' said Milestone's managing director Bernhard Wippaunig.

Milestone plans to build up a portfolio of 30 properties across Europe over time. Projects are in the planning stage in the Austrian towns of Innsbruck, Salzburg and Linz, with Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland next in line.

Conference
The growth in dedicated student accommodation in continental Europe and the opportunities this creates for institutional investors will be discussed at The Class of 2020 annual conference in Amsterdam on 3-4 November.