US investor Avenue Capital is to put its £450m student housing portfolio on the market.
It has instructed JLL to market the opportunity, dubbed Project Rose, which comprises 6,000 bedrooms across 13 assets in five UK cities, including popular student hubs Newcastle and Nottingham.
The formal sale process will start this week.
The portfolio offers a major opportunity for existing investors to increase their scale in the student housing sector. It is one of the last high-quality collections of assets available in the UK, and is likely to appeal to both UK and overseas investors.
New York-based Avenue Capital entered the UK student housing market in 2013 with a £100m purchase of part of the collapsed Opal Property Group. In the same year, it bought two further tranches for a combined £270m and has since added single assets and forward-funded development projects.
Project Rose is now the biggest student housing portfolio currently on the market, following Mansion Student Accommodation Fund’s 5,500-bedroom Project Ardent sale, which Knight Frank is marketing for £400m.
