The City fringe campus of Hult Business School has been brought to market with a £100m price tag.
Aldgate Developments Guernsey has instructed JLL to sell Assam Place on Commercial Road, E1, at a price reflecting a 5.4% net initial yield.
The 160,000 sq ft HKR Architects-designed development is fully let to the business school at a rent of £5.5m pa.
The campus includes a 317-bed student tower, a separate block of 29 flats and 38,000 sq ft of teaching space for the school’s 1,200 students.
Plans are proposed for a further 54 flats.
Hult, which was founded in the US, is the world’s largest graduate business school.
The sale of the campus comes amid growing investor appetite for student accommodation in the capital.
Of the 290,000 full-time students in London, 74% are unable to secure purpose-built university or private sector housing, according to JLL.
Rents at the Hult campus are currently £325 per week but are forecast to rise.
Comparable developments nearby, such as the Nido Spitalfields, command as much as £429 per week.
Student accommodation investment opportunities in the heart of the City are rare, and competition for Assam Place is expected to be strong.
Purchase and development spending in the sector rose to £1.1bn in the first half of the year, up from £936m in the same period last year, according to CBRE.
Oli Buckland, director in CBRE’s student accommodation team, said: “It is rare to see a development like this in the heart of the City for sale. Both UK investors and international buyers will be attracted to it because student accommodation continues to be a strong asset class owing to its resilient income profile and strong tenant demand.”
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
