Canary Wharf Group eyes co-living move as it expands Vertus brand
The Canary Wharf Group is considering a move into co-living as it expands its build-to-rent (BTR) arm, Vertus …
News Articles
Quarterly Valuation Update: The Unite Group plc
Unite Students, the UK’s leading owner, manager and developer of student accommodation, announces the quarterly property valuation of the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund (‘USAF’) and the London Student Accommodation Joint Venture (‘LSAV’) as at 31 December 2019.
At 31 December 2019, USAF’s property portfolio was independently valued at £2,850 million, representing a like-for-like increase of 0.8% during the quarter and 3.1% for the year. The portfolio comprises 30,209 beds in 79 properties across 22 University towns and cities in the UK.
LSAV’s investment portfolio was independently valued at £1,335 million, up 2.7% in the quarter on a like-for-like basis and 7.4% for the year. LSAV’s investment portfolio comprises 8,354 beds across 12 properties in London and Aston Student Village in Birmingham …
Homes for Students creates new roles to accommodate portfolio growth
Homes for Students has appointed two new regional asset managers to oversee its UK student accommodation portfolio …
Student Castle sells student portfolio to Singapore Press Holdings for £448m
Student Castle has sold a seven-strong student accommodation portfolio to Singapore Press Holdings for £448m …
Manchester looks to put brake on co-living developments
Manchester’s political leaders are being urged to place strict controls on the number of co-living schemes approved in the city until a proper policy can be developed for the housing model.
A report to a meeting of the city council’s executive this week argues that purpose-built and professionally managed shared-housing developments could be detrimental to the city’s housing market and the authority’s finances – and questions the demand for them.
Strategic director for growth and development Eddie Smith said there were solid grounds for supporting co-living developments in only “a very limited number of places, in restricted amounts, within the city centre” and where developers could robustly evidence need …
Blackstone and Brookfield join £4bn hunt for UK student housing group IQ
Blackstone and Brookfield are among five potential bidders circling IQ, a UK student accommodation company, in a deal that may be worth more than £4bn, people briefed on the matter said.
The interest in London-based IQ comes as its owners at Goldman Sachs and Wellcome Trust, the medical research charity, are preparing an initial public offering of the business for which they joined forces to grow in early 2016.
Others who are also considering offers for IQ are Greystar, the US property company, Mapletree, the Singapore-based real estate investor, and Patrizia, the German real estate firm, these people said. A deadline for initial bids comes before Christmas, and people close to the sale process expected offers to exceed £4bn …
Unite’s Hayes on plans to integrate Liberty – UK
Unite’s £1.4bn takeover of Liberty Living was completed last week, just over six months after the student accommodation giant announced it was in talks to buy the business from Canadian pension business CPPIB.
The scale of the proposed deal triggered an investigation from the Competition and Markets Authority, (CMA) but it was given the green light in early November.
Property Week caught up with Unite group property director Nick Hayes to find out more about what Unite plans to do next.
Why did Unite want to buy Liberty Living?
We’d admired Liberty for a long time. There¹s good overlap between us as businesses and the cities we operate in. Plus it has always been institutionally well regarded, and had high occupancy. We were thinking about where to take the business and invested a lot of capital in setting up Unite¹s structure for growth, so we reached out to CPPIB to see if they would entertain a transaction …
Unite: Completion of Acquisition of Liberty Living
Unite Group Plc is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Liberty Living Group Plc from Liberty Living Holdings Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPPIB”) (the “Acquisition”).
Richard Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Unite, said: “I am delighted that we have completed the transformational acquisition of Liberty Living, reinforcing our position as a leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation in the UK. This deal brings together two complementary businesses who share a commitment to providing high quality, affordable student accommodation with a focus on service and welfare and a strategic alignment to universities where student demand is strongest.
“The deal will accelerate our earnings, driving meaningful accretion from 2020 onwards. It also gives us enhanced scale which, combined with our best-in-class operating platform, means we are well-placed to meet the substantial market opportunity from the 1.5 million students requiring accommodation each year.” …
Unite completes Liberty Living deal
Unite Group has completed its £1.4bn acquisition of Liberty Living Group.
As part of the deal Unite has appointed Thomas Jackson from Liberty’s former owner the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which retains a 20% stake in the business …
BTR tops alternative investments
The end of Help to Buy is fast approaching. It feels symbolic, reflecting the UK population’s shifting attitudes away from an occupier-owner model to that of private renter. From 18-year-olds heading to university through to retirees looking to downsize, the UK residential landscape is undergoing seismic change.
Investors are on the same page. The first half of 2019 saw record global investment into residential real estate. And according to a recent JLL report, alternative asset classes have, for the first time, accounted for more than a quarter of total investment in UK real estate so far this year.
Earlier this month, Investec invited Madalena Contreras from Henderson Park (build-to-rent), Adam Brockley at Scape (co-living), Sadie Malim from Moorfield (PBSA) and Mark Dickinson from Lifestory (retirement living) to argue the case for their respective sectors as the best investment of £50m over the next 10 years …