International Campus has purchased five student apartment blocks in Germany from Allianz Real Estate and CBRE Investment Management.
According to the firm, this acquisition is one of the largest transactions in the German-speaking region in the student housing market in the last three years. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The properties are already operated by International Campus under its brand THE FIZZ and are located in Berlin (Köpenicker Strasse), Darmstadt (Schöfferstrasse), Frankfurt am Main (Mainzer Landstrasse), Hanover (Am Kläpperberg) and Vienna (Dresdner Strasse). The accommodations available at the five properties add nearly 1,900 beds overall.
“We are proud to say that we now have 18 owned properties in fourteen different locations across four countries with a total of 7,400 beds under operation and development. We look forward to continuing our acquisition targets in 2023 by adding stabilized and turn-key assets in the living space through traditional and innovative and flexible purchase structures,” commented Gawain Smart, CEO of International Campus Group.
“International Campus currently focusses on the major German cities for our student brand THE FIZZ. However, we are happy to look at B-cities with strong universities,” added Michael Stapf, Chief Investment Officer of International Campus Group. “The student apartments acquired from Allianz and CBRE are already fully occupied. We see strong demand in the student sector. Nevertheless, the sector continues to innovate and we are planning to implement our new design and service concept in all of our newly acquired properties by upgrading the community spaces and by giving apartments a make-over,” explained Michael Stapf.
University enrolment in the cities where the just-purchased student apartment blocks are located adds up to a current total of more than 560,000 students.
In the current market, student housing is proving to be a stable investment class, just as it was during the pandemic. According to the latest Student Housing Spotlight from Savills, the transaction market continues to rush from one record to the next: In Europe, the volume in the first three quarters was around 11.7 billion. Euros, which corresponds to an increase of 130 percent compared to the previous year. Demand also remains unabatedly high, as student housing continues to be in short supply and, with construction activity expected to decline this year, the number of new homes is not providing the relief needed.
