UK: Veld Capital has Saltwater Place and Mary Parker House, two recently built PBSA assets in Plymouth, Devon.
The properties were acquired in separate transactions, from Pickstock Group and Maple Grove Developments, who developed the assets. The schemes jointly offer 513 rooms and were fully let over the past three academic years.
Saltwater Place is within a 15-minute walk to the main university campus and Plymouth train station. Mary Parker House is located within a six-minute walk to the main university campus and an eight-minute walk to Plymouth train station.
Plymouth has an undersupplied PBSA market, with a student population of around 24,000 across three educational institutions. There are around 6,000 PBSA beds available in the city.
Veld Capital worked in partnership with Avignon Capital on the acquisitions and will work together on the day-to-day asset management operations. Barclays PLC provided acquisition financing for both transactions. Danesborough Properties advised the purchasers and Beachrock and Cushman & Wakefield advised the vendors.
Jon Silvosa, investment director at Veld Capital, said: “The high-income potential and exceptional value of these acquisitions proved to be particularly attractive to Veld, offering strong returns for core assets in an excellent location with very solid fundamentals associated. The high yielding nature of these investments in what has consistently proven to be a resilient asset class is something that we are actively looking to build upon as we pursue a number of other attractive opportunities in the UK PBSA market.”
Nick Barton Cliffe, investment manager at Avignon Capital, added: “Avignon are delighted to have worked in partnership with Veld Capital on these acquisitions. The assets’ proven occupational track record has provided the basis of an excellent demand profile. Combined with the underlying supply shortage in the Plymouth PBSA market, we identified a highly compelling story with attractive cash-on-cash returns compared to historical levels as well as wider market comparables.”
