Curlew Capital and CBRE Investment Management have taken three properties out of a £240 million student housing portfolio they had agreed to sell to Aviva Investors in December, CoStar News understands.
The sellers believe that they can get a better price for the three properties, worth around £40 million, if they sell them later separately as rents continue to rise, said a source familiar with the situation. Aviva had agreed to buy the £240 million portfolio in two stages, as reported.
On 19 December, it bought the following five properties totaling 1,048 beds:
- Cricket Field Court, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter, EX4 4FU (159 beds)
- The Barn, Bampfylde Street, Exeter, EX1 2FQ (150 beds)
- Potterrow, 16-18, 22a Potterrow, Edinburgh, EH8 9BL (203 beds)
- Packsaddle, Falmouth (124 beds)
- The Lantern, 6 Bolton Street, Liverpool, L3 5AA (412 beds plus Premier Inn and Lidl)
Curlew and CBRE IM are keeping the following three properties for now:
- The Shield, Clarence Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 1YN (409 beds)
- Dun Holm House, Unit 8, The Riverwalk, Durham, DH1 4SL (253 beds)
- Bridge House, 180 Old Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, G3 8WB (128 beds)
The properties come out of the Curlew Student Trust, a seven-year fund launched in 2013, with the backing of clients of CBRE GIP, which later rebranded as CBRE Investment Management, and managed by Curlew Capital.
None of the parties involved responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.