Japanese investor splashes $600m on student housing giant UniLodge
One of Japan’s biggest accommodation operators has taken a majority stake in Australia’s biggest student housing operator, UniLodge, in a deal worth more than $600 million – part of a growing push by institutional investors to gain exposure to the residential rental sector.
It also adds to the surge of Japanese capital into Australia’s property sector, across an increasingly diverse array of investments from building companies, to greenfield housing projects, build-to-rent developments and office towers.
Samty Holdings, which develops and manages rental apartments, hotels and offices in Japan and Vietnam, said the move for UniLodge was in line with its broader regional strategy.
“This acquisition supports Samty’s long-term ambition to expand its role as a leading provider of accommodation services in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Samty chief executive Yasuhiro Ogawa in a statement on Friday.
“We are committed to maintaining UniLodge’s high standard of accommodation for the thousands of students and families who rely on their well-managed and maintained properties,” said Ogawa.
With 45,000 beds in more than 150 facilities, UniLodge is the largest operator of purpose-built student accommodation in Australia and New Zealand. It runs on an asset-light model, managing real estate owned by third parties.
UniLodge is the operating partner of Cedar Pacific, a real estate platform focused on purpose-built residential assets and majority owned by Pamoja Capital, a private equity firm founded by Canadian billionaire John McCall MacBain.
Pamoja is also the ultimate holding company of UniLodge, which booked an $18 million profit in the 2025 financial year from $110 million in revenue, according to its latest filings.
Samty, which did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, was itself taken private at the start of this year. It is now owned by US private equity firm Hillhouse Investment Management and Daiwa Securities.
Expansion phase
Australia’s student housing sector has been in an expansion phase, underpinned by the growth of overseas student enrolments, and is attracting big offshore players as a result.
A majority stake in UniLodge has been on the block for around six months, after its owner appointed UBS bankers to garner interest. The process was tightly contested, with Samty edging out other interested parties thought to include US rentals giant Greystar and New York-headquartered buyout firm Warburg Pincus.
Samty’s success adds to Japanese investors’ growing interest in Australian property, with real estate transactions accounting for one in five Japanese deals here last year.
Sydney investment house AsheMorgan last month tapped Japanese companies Marubeni Corporation, Haseko Corporation and Mizuho Leasing as its partners in delivering its $600 million build-to-rent project in Melbourne’s Docklands.
Two months ago, Japan’s JR West Real Estate & Development Company and Sotetsu Real Estate bought into Investa’s $230 million development in Sydney.
Some of Japan’s biggest investors are now prominent in the local market, such as Mitsubishi Estate, which this year took a half-stake in Mirvac’s proposed $2.3 billion Harbourside mixed-use luxury apartment project in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
Tokyo-listed Sumitomo Corp is also backing Mirvac’s development of a housing estate in north-western Sydney, while in Melbourne’s Docklands, Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate is partnering with Lendlease on a $500 million build-to-rent project.
