UK: Two Singaporean companies, Q Investment Partners and Soilbuild Group have formed a £200 million UK student housing platform.
The fund will be seeded with two development projects in York and Newcastle with a combined 650 beds, accounting for roughly 50 per cent of the platform’s expected assets. Both properties are to be operated by the Prestige Student Living brand of Homes for Students.
Private equity firm QIP and property investment group Soilbuild have capitalised and underwritten the build-to-core platform, which is seeking limited partners to invest in up to 45 per cent of the equity.
QIP co-founder and CEO Paul Young said: “The PBSA sector continues to be increasingly attractive to institutional investors. This partnership demonstrates our continued commitment to the sector and will see QIP leverage our existing platform scale to address the growing demand for high-quality student accommodation in the UK.”
QIP said the £200 million platform has further scope to scale up to £400 million citing Knight Frank data showing that the supply of accommodation has failed to keep pace with the increase in students at UK universities and colleges.
“QIP and Soilbuild have significant expertise in providing a full spectrum of real estate solutions, and through this strategic partnership with QIP, we are leading the way to build a scalable portfolio of UK PBSA assets to address the structural undersupply of quality student accommodation in the market,” said Soilbuild director Lim Han Feng.
Prestige Student Living has 40,000 beds under management in more than 50 UK cities, including the student accommodation portfolio of Mapletree Investments.
QIP and its principals have managed more than $1.2 billion worth of real estate investments in developed markets including the US, the UK and Japan.
