GIC JV acquires German student housing portfolio for over €330m

GSA has announced transactions that will add a total of 1,900 beds to GSA Germany, across the cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.

All these transactions come under GSA’s existing partnership with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, which aims to focus on creating student accommodation scale in key markets in Germany.

GSA has entered the Berlin market by acquiring two mixed-use schemes totaling approximately 1,300 beds. These schemes are well located in central districts of Berlin (Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg) and will feature predominantly student accommodation, as well as serviced apartments. They will be marketed to students under the Neon Wood and Tannhaus brand names.

GSA has also entered Hamburg, acquiring a nearly 330-bed property from Garbe College GmbH. It is located in the Wandsbek district. Known as “Navale” the student residence is managed by Uninest Student Residences, GSA’s operating brand within the German market.

In Frankfurt, GSA has added additional scale to its portfolio with the acquisition of more than 270 beds from Devario Invest. The student residence, called “Urbanum”, is located in a prime central location on Mainzer Landstraße and is well connected to Goethe University, one of Germany’s leading universities. It is also managed by Uninest Student Residences. The scheme offers studios with high specification, broadband Internet and social spaces including two roof terraces.

GSA now owns nearly 3,000 beds in Germany.

There is a rapid increase in student population demanding better quality accommodation, which will spur more competition. International student numbers in Europe are set to hit 7 million in 2020, up from 4.1 million in 2014, and expectations of student accommodation have increased. European universities must take into account the need for modern, purpose-built student accommodation if they are to remain globally competitive, according to JLL.

JLL estimated there was €4 billion to €5 billion of capital looking for student housing stock across Europe during 2017.

Germany has the largest student population of all the European markets, having grown by more than 28 percent over the past decade, according to JLL. More importantly, just 1 percent of these students are part-time, reinforcing the demand for term time accommodation. In recent years, there has been a strong increase in the number of international students coming into the country, although the impact of this is mitigated by an expected fall in the number of domestic students and the large number of German students who themselves study abroad in countries such as Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Berlin is one of the top capital cities that attracts national and international students, according to “The European Student Housing Market 2017” report by Uniplaces, an online marketplace for booking student accommodation.