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Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has teamed up with The Scion Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) to purchase a portfolio of 24 student housing in the US for a total of US$1.1 billion (S$1.48 billion).
GIC and CPPIB each own a 45 percent stake in the newly acquired portfolio, while Scion holds the remaining 10 percent.
The properties are located across 20 different university campus markets. With a total of 13,666 beds, these comprise a mix of select value-added assets and recently developed Class-A properties in mainly tier-1 university markets.
These include 22 student housing bought from affiliates of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, while another two previously owned by Scion-affiliated private syndications were recapitalized.
“This is a compelling investment opportunity to efficiently build further scale in the U.S. student housing sector with a portfolio of high-quality, well-located properties in new and existing joint venture markets,” said Hilary Spann, Managing Director and Head of Americas for Real Estate Investments at CPPIB.
With this new portfolio, the joint venture now owns 73 student housing communities across 52 top-tier university markets with a total of 46,555 beds. In addition, more than 70 percent of the properties are situated within one mile of their respective campuses.
“As a long-term investor, we are pleased to acquire this quality portfolio with good cash yields,” said GIC Real Estate’s Chief Investment Officer Lee Kok Sun.
“We remain confident in the student housing sector, and in our partnership with Scion and CPPIB which has enabled us to scale-up quickly our US student housing portfolio.”
Furthermore, the joint venture will continue to seek additional opportunities to purchase high-quality student housing mostly in tier-1 university markets in the US.
Since the trio’s partnership was formed in January 2016, it has invested more than US$4 billion to pick up four major portfolios, in which equity capital of around US$1.4 billion has been deployed.
This article was edited by Keshia Faculin.
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