Property investment firm Muinzer bought two student housing developments near Purdue University in Indiana, bringing the company’s total acquisition activity to more than a quarter-billion dollars in the past year — even as overall U.S. multifamily investment has slowed.

Muinzer and its partner, an affiliate of Walton Street Capital — the real estate investment firm of Chicago casino magnate Neil Bluhm — purchased a total of 362 beds across two properties in West Lafayette. The developments, Grant Street Station and South Street Station, sold for a combined $46 million and are 99% pre-leased for the upcoming school year, the company said.

The properties last sold as a two-property portfolio in 2017 to Nelson Partners Student Housing for $40.56 million, according to CoStar data. The purchase brings Muinzer’s total acquisition activity over the past 12 months to more than $250 million as it looks to add $2 billion in student housing assets near high-growth universities to its portfolio.

“We will continue to acquire student housing communities in the top university markets,” Marc Muinzer, the eponymous founder and chief executive of the Muinzer real estate firm, said in a statement. “The combination of our access to capital and our veteran student housing management team gives us a significant runway to continue acquiring.”

Muinzer’s commitment to purchasing student housing assets comes as overall multifamily investments have been declining. According to CoStar data, deal volume in the first quarter reached just $16 billion nationwide, the lowest since the second quarter of 2020 and less than half the long-run quarterly average over the past decade.

Transaction volume did pick up in the second quarter of this year, but at $22.65 billion was still well below the $37 billion quarterly average over the past 10 years.

Student housing has not been immune from the effects of higher-for-longer interest rates that have held down deal volume across the multifamily sector with transaction volume dropping 71% in 2023 to $5.7 billion, according to finance firm Walker & Dunlop. But housing at the largest universities in the country has benefited from an imbalance in supply and demand as enrollment recovers from pandemic-era lows.

After adding nearly 60,000 beds in 2016, development totals have been less than 40,000 for three consecutive school years, according to Fannie Mae. The government-sponsored enterprise estimates there were only 32,000 beds added during the 2023-2024 school year and expects that number to fall to nearly 26,000 by 2025.

And while pre-leasing rates and other student housing indicators have edged lower over the 2023-2024 school year compared to the end of last term, the decline in new supply coupled with an increase in enrollment has bolstered student housing performance above historical averages, Fannie Mae said.

According to Walker & Dunlop, there are now 1.34 full-time enrolled students for every bed at the 20 largest universities by student housing inventory.

At Purdue, where Walker & Dunlop estimates there are 1.83 beds for every student, rents grew nearly 5% on yearly basis in the second quarter of this year on top of more than 11% rent growth in second quarter of 2023, according to CoStar data.

“We have long-term conviction in student housing and are actively deploying capital,” Michael Snyder, chief operating officer at Muinzer, said in a statement.

Muinzer began investing in student housing in 2002 and is one of the largest owners and operators of the asset class in markets served by Big Ten and Southeastern conference schools. The company is the largest owner and operators of student housing near Purdue, Muinzer told CoStar News in an email.