GSA Group, Harrison Street to Invest $846M in Spain Student Housing
The partners plan to acquire more than 10,000 beds in Madrid, Barcelona and other major university cities across the country.
Barcelona. Photo via Pixabay
A joint venture between Global Student Accommodation Group and Harrison Street has agreed to acquire more than 10,000 student housing beds across Spain, with plans to invest more than $845.5 million in university cities across the country.
GSA and Harrison Street will initially add 8,000 new student housing beds in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona to its portfolio, which will add to the 2,000 existing beds the joint venture started with. In Barcelona, the joint venture will open two new student communities in September. The partnership plans to continue growing its portfolio of properties in university cities across Europe, following similar ventures the two firms have made together in the UK and Ireland.
“The Spanish student housing market is extremely attractive due to a lack of adequate housing options and outdated facilities for the 1.3 million students in the country,” said Rob Mathias, senior managing director at Harrison Street, in prepared remarks.
Last year, Harrison Street acquired a micro-unit student housing portfolio with more than 1,000 units across Germany. One of the firm’s biggest deals was the 2016 acquisition of Campus Crest Communities for $1.9 billion.
