Student housing deal sees Wee Hur raise $567 million

“We believe that given our deep expertise and knowledge in the built environment, this was the best approach to take in executing our investment thesis of addressing the student housing undersupply situation at that time, and our efforts are now starting to pay off,” Goh said.

“We are extremely pleased to have done a recapitalisation of our first Australia focused PBSA fund, providing exit certainty for our investors within the fund term and providing a war chest for the group from the partial recycling of capital should further investment opportunities arise. ”

Global private equity group Brookfield has also recognised the potential for large-scale growth in the sector with its first investment in student accommodation in Australia, striking a joint venture with integrated property business Citiplan to acquire a purpose-built student accommodation development site opposite the University of Melbourne.

Loading

Last month, Brookfield and Citiplan struck a deal to build a platform of high-quality purpose-built student accommodation assets managed by Journal Student Living. The platform aims to deliver high-quality assets in key gateway locations around Australia and New Zealand.

The joint venture will build on Brookfield’s $US7.4 billion ($10.06 billion) global student accommodation business, with 197 assets, containing more than 55,000 beds across Europe and the United States, including businesses Scion Group and Student Roost.

Loading

Brookfield’s head of real estate investments, Ruban Kaneshamoorthy, said the thematics driving student housing were strong as we moved into a post-COVID environment.

“There has been significant growth in international student enrolments over the past 10 years, driven by a burgeoning Asian middle class who view Australia as an attractive studying location, and we expect growth to rebound in the coming years,” he said.

The acquisition of the initial site signals Brookfield’s acceleration into alternative real estate assets in Australia after it acquired seniors living business Aveo in 2019.