GIC invests in German student accommodation

GIC announces a push into the German student accommodation market.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and global student accommodation specialists GSA yesterday announced a partnership to capitalise on growth opportunities in the German student accommodation market.

This is GIC’s second partnership with GSA, the first of which involved the acquisition of a portfolio of student beds in the UK.

In a joint statement, the two companies revealed that the cornerstone investment is a portfolio of almost 1,000 student beds, which GSA acquired in June 2016.

The portfolio includes properties in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Dresden and Munster as well as a pipeline of 1,500 beds, which will be expanded through investments, developments and partnerships with local property firms.

The partnership will target Germany’s major university cities such as Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt.

“Purpose-built and managed student accommodation is a completely new concept for the German rental market, designed to meet the needs of both millennial students and also universities who seek to enhance the attraction of their institutions,” the companies said.

Madeleine Cosgrave, Regional Head, Europe at GIC Real Estate, said: “We are excited to enter the German student housing market which is at an early stage of growth. We see good opportunities for consolidation as the market is highly fragmented.”

Last week, GIC unveiled a partnership with GSA to acquire a 7,150-bed student accommodation portfolio in the UK from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.

It noted that the transaction is the biggest student accommodation deal so far this year in the UK.

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg