Allianz commits €400m to London student housing JV
Germany's Allianz Real Estate has teamed up with Greystar Real Estate Partners and Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s (PSP Investments) UK student housing partnership to develop the student accomodation platform Chapter.
It is the insurance group's largest equity investment into the UK so far, and follows on from recent lending deals including providing construction finance for 80 Fenchurch Street in April this year, providing long term debt worth £212m to refinance 55 Baker Street, London in September 2017 and co-financing the prominent CityPoint Tower earlier in the year.
Acting on behalf of various Allianz insurance companies, Allianz Real Estate is committing Stg£350m (€400m) in equity to the joint venture, which plans to double the Chapter platform's 5,100 student beds in central London to 10,000 student beds over the coming five years. Greystar will continue to manage the student housing portfolio for the JV, which has ten locations in the UK capital, including Aldgate, Islington, King's Cross, South Bank and Spitalfields, with White City coming on stream this September.
Back in 2014 the Canadian pension fund investment manager (now with €99bn of AUM) joined up with Greystar to create and develop the Chapter brand, whose strategy is to grow the portfolio through acquisitions and new developments.
According to Olivier Téran, the CIO of Allianz Real Estate, “This joint venture with Greystar and PSP Investments underlines our strategic commitment to scale up our global allocation to high-quality student accommodation in established markets.
“This transaction is particularly important for Allianz as it also marks our largest equity investment into the UK, which has become an increasing focus for us across the capital structure,” he added.
Bob Faith, the founder and CEO of Greystar, said: “This partnership marks an important step in the rapidly growing institutional-grade rental housing and student accommodation investment market in the UK.