Amiri Capital has announced plans to launch a new UK student accommodation REIT, assembling a £1bn portfolio over the next five years.
The London-based real estate investment manager and adviser has already identified a pipeline of assets and is currently in discussions with a number of investors and aims to IPO early next year.
Amiri plans to float in the first quarter of 2017 and expects to raise an initial raise in excess of £100m. The REIT will target Russell Group universities outside London.
Amiri said it aims to fill the gap in UK student investment REITs for mid-priced assets in major regional cities, which benefit from higher yields and less competition for acquisitions compared to London.
There are currently only two other standalone student REITs in the UK – GCP Student Living and Empiric.
Richard Ellis, co-founder of Amiri Capital, said: “As an investment proposition, student accommodation offers compelling characteristics in current markets.
“With strong defensive qualities, reflecting a long-term structural supply and demand imbalance and higher yields compared to equivalent real estate market sectors, we believe it is well-placed to deliver strong returns in spite of wider post-Brexit uncertainty.”
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