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Sign in Sign up for a FREE subscriptionLiberty Living buys £460m U.K. student portfolio
Canada-based Liberty Living has acquired a £460 million ($539 million) U.K. student housing portfolio from The Blackstone Group. The deal was announced in December 2016.
The assets are located in across the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain. Liberty Living has purchased the Union State portfolio, comprising 13 student halls with 6,484 beds in markets including Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield. And it marks the entry of the Liberty Living platform into continental Europe for the first time.
The acquisition will make the Canadian investor the second-largest student housing provider in the United Kingdom after its larger rival Unite, with more than 25,000 beds under management.
Liberty Living is a student-housing platform owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which purchased it in 2015 for £1.1 billion ($1.3 billion).
Recently, Liberty Living sold three student housing assets to Henley for £49.3 ($57.7 million). The combined properties, i