Henderson Park and Hines have sold the 743-bed purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) currently under construction in Barcelona to Commerz Real Capital Management Company acting on behalf of the Commerz Real Institutional Smart Living Europe Fund.
Henderson Park and Hines acquired the project in August 2018 and have subsequently progressed the development which is on target to be operational in time for the 2022/23 academic year.
Once complete the accommodation, Pallars, will comprise 20,000 square metres above ground, and 6,079 square metres below, with capacity for 743 students. The project will be managed by Hines’ property management team, via its aparto brand.
The 8-storey student accommodation building in Barcelona’s 22@ district has been designed by architects Batlle i Roig, with 2,500 square metres of exterior gardens, 1,800 square metres of amenity space and 900 square metres of roof terrace with the aim to achieve LEED Gold and WELL Platinum certification.
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Henderson Park and Hines will continue to develop the building until completion.
Barcelona is a top 10 European student city and is home to eight universities, of which, four are public and four are private. Student accommodation in Barcelona is typically undersupplied with an estimated 8,700 operational PBSA beds and 165,000 students on an average year. The resulting provision rate of 5%, which equates to 19 students per available PBSA bed, signifies the need for greater provision of PBSA in Barcelona.
Nick Weber, Founding Partner of Henderson Park, said: “We identified Barcelona as a market with highly attractive supply and demand dynamics for the student accommodation sector, ‘ said Nick Weber, Founding Partner of Henderson Park.
”Our projects have made a positive contribution to the new 22@ innovation district in Barcelona, helping transform this neighbourhood into an international centre of educational excellence. As the projects progressed we received a number of offers for these assets with continued strong investor demand for high quality properties in these sectors. We took the opportunity to accelerate our business plan via these early disposals. This latest sale to a well-respected long term investor marks a highly successful conclusion of our investment into this project on behalf of our clients. Our ‘Living’ focused residential strategy remains one of our conviction calls and we will continue to look for opportunities in this sector.”
“22@Barcelona is one of the largest urban regeneration schemes in Europe and is famed for innovation. We’re delighted to play our part with over 75,000 square metres under development across this dynamic hub with the student living project central to its genesis. Working alongside Henderson Park, we continue to focus on delivering these residences for the 2022/23 academic year and look forward to the ongoing property management of the site via our aparto brand,” said Vanessa Gelado, Senior Management Director and Country Head for Spain, at Hines.
Cushman & Wakefield and Garrigues advised Henderson Park and Hines on the sale of the property.
Commerz Real AG, acting on behalf of their European Student Housing fund, was advised by Savills and Cuatrecasas.
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