Aviva Investors has agreed to buy a portfolio of student homes with 1,838 beds across the UK from Curlew Capital and CBRE Global Investment Partners for around £240 million, said two sources familiar with the situation.
The portfolio will transfer to Aviva in two stages as the sellers still need to rectify a few technical issues with some of the properties.
In the first stage, which is imminent, Aviva will acquire a portfolio of six properties with 1,457 beds, a hotel and a Lidl supermarket for around £200 million. The second stage comprises a further two properties in Glasgow and Durham with 381 beds for around £40 million.
The first tranche comprises properties in Exeter (two properties, 209 beds), Newcastle (409 beds), Liverpool (412 beds, a Premier Inn and a Lidl), Falmouth (124 beds), Edinburgh (203 beds).
The parties have been in talks since the spring, as first reported by React News in May.
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. By the start of the 2018-19 academic year, CST had acquired 25 properties with 7,268 beds, according to Curlew’s website. In February 2018, it sold 75% of the portfolio to Student Roost and retained eight assets, as reported.
The student housing sector in Europe shows resilient demand and constrained supply, which will sustain rental outperformance in key university cities, according to a research note on Thursday from fund manager DWS. Southern Europe has the largest shortfall in student accommodation but key university cities in the UK, France and the Netherlands also require investment to meet demand, it added.
Curlew and Aviva declined to comment.
(Updated on 14 December to reflect CBRE GIP changed its name to CBRE Investment Management.)