Extra Credit: Lenders Fuel Student Housing Buying Spree
Development financing is harder to come by, but qualified sponsors can still find plenty of capital for acquisition.
Coming off a strong year in 2015, student housing investment continues to gain momentum. By August, volume reached $5.7 billion, a 54 percent year-over-year increase that edged out the $5.6 billion tally for all of 2015, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. Although financing for construction has slowed a bit, acquisition financing is readily available from varied sources as 2016 heads for the home stretch.
“The attractiveness of the capital has gotten better in terms of the all-in rate and other terms that borrowers are able to achieve,” said Benjamin Roelke, a Dallas-based vice president with CBRE Capital Markets. “That is just a result of the capital markets producing attractive rates. But it is also tied to the student housing asset class being (at) a point where capital providers are more comfortable with it.”
For more insights into the opportunities and challenges related to financing student housing communities, read the report in the September issue of MHN.