Singaporean investor Mapletree Investments has bought the Project Ardent student housing portfolio for £417m from International Mutual Fund, as tipped by Estates Gazette in November.
The price for the 5,500-bed portfolio reflects a yield of around 6%.
Project Ardent comprises 25 properties in UK 12 cities. The properties were previously part of the Mansion Student Accommodation Fund.
For Mapletree, which is backed by Singaporean state-owned company Temasek, this is the first deal in the UK student housing market and its second major UK real estate acquisition in the past two months.
Mapletree outbid established student housing investors Gatehouse, Roundhill Capital and LetterOne to secure Project Ardent, which represents one of the last opportunities to build scale quickly in the student market.
James Pullan, head of student property at Knight Frank, said: “Knight Frank received bids from four corners of the globe before working with Singapore based Mapletree. This sale forms the biggest transaction of the year, and makes up a significant part of the £3.1 bn of Student Accommodation Transactions we are forecasting in 2016.”
Guernsey-based IMF instructed Knight Frank in June to review the fund and consider options that included a refinancing or a sale.
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