Student Housing Investment Opportunities Draw Investors to Liverpool

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Liverpool, UK—Knight Frank has facilitated the sale of the student accommodation property Europa in Liverpool on behalf of Aprirose.

The company sold the asset to Knightsbridge Student Housing Ltd. for $56.67 million (£36.35 million), reflecting a net initial yield of 5.25 percent. The community was developed by Watkin Jones Group in 2009.

The 127,951-square-foot purpose built property is leased to Nicelook Limited guaranteed by Watkin Jones on a term of 15 years. It provides a total income of about $3,148,273 (£2,019,285) per year, and has been fully let since construction. The 592-bedroom community is located on Manfred Street, within close proximity to two Liverpool university campuses.

“In a stock starved market fixed lease student accommodation investment opportunities are keenly sought after and as such this sale attracted considerable interest,” commented Shaun Roy, partner, Capital Markets team at Knight Frank.

Manish Gudka, CEO of Aprirose, said that his company acquired the property in an off-market transaction in the middle of the recession. Aprirose was drawn by the asset’s stable income flows linked to inflation.

“We were motivated to dispose the investment as it provides us a strong return with a low risk profile and allows us the opportunity to look at more core plus and value add opportunities leveraging off our expanding asset management platform,” Gudka added.