BREIT completes $1.2b student housing portfolio acquisition

Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) has completed the previously announced acquisition of the EdR Student Housing Portfolio for $1.2 billion in a 95/5 joint venture with Greystar Real Estate Partners.

The transaction was completed in conjunction with Greystar’s previously announced $4.6 billion acquisition of Education Realty Trust, one of the largest owners, developers and managers of collegiate housing in the United States.

The portfolio includes 10,500 beds across 20 student housing assets adjacent to top-tier universities that have demonstrated strong enrollment growth, such as University of California Berkeley, University of California Riverside, University of Virginia, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Colorado Boulder and Penn State. The portfolio has consistently maintained occupancy rates over 97 percent and has achieved 98.5 percent beginning occupancy with 3.2 percent annual rate growth for the 2018–2019 academic year.

The Greystar/EdR team will continue to manage the assets.

Pro forma for this transaction, BREIT will own an approximately $12 billion portfolio of stabilized, income-generating real estate concentrated in U.S. markets with attractive growth as well as real estate debt securities.