Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone and former chief executive Roger Taylor have agreed to sell a prime student accommodation portfolio to Round Hill Capital for close to £335m.
The sale, by the pair’s Student Castle business, comprises most of the company’s assets and includes five schemes totalling around 3,000 beds.
The properties are located at 65 Leman Street, E1; 1 Great Marlborough Street, Manchester; Melbourne Street, Newcastle; Park Place, Bristol; and Adam Street, Cardiff.
Round Hill fought off competition from Liberty Living, backed by new owner Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, and Europa Capital, backed by the National Pension Service of Korea. The portfolio’s high quality has achieved pricing that reflects a yield of close to 4.5%.
“The assets in the portfolio are as good as there are out there,” a market source said. “They are well run, well located and were all completed within the last two to three years, so although the price being paid is at the top end, it is understandable considering what is being bought.”
In March, Round Hill sold a £600m portfolio of three London assets, previously branded Nido, to Greystar Real Estate Partners and PSP Investments and is recycling that cash.
Round Hill still owns one student accommodation scheme in West Hampstead, NW6, which is branded Nido. It retained the rights to the Nido name after the latest sale and will have the option of rolling it out to the Student Castle portfolio.
Student Castle was established in 2010 by Edward Cade and Jacqui Hawthorn, who previously managed student accommodation projects for Moorfield Group under the Domain brand, with backing from Dunstone and Taylor.
Dunstone is now chairman of Dixons Carphone and Taylor is deputy chairman following Carphone Warehouse’s £3.7bn merger with Dixons last year.
Round Hill declined to comment.
