Scape seals $2b Urbanest student digs deal
A record $1.46 billion has been invested in student accommodation such as Scape this year.

Scape seals $2b Urbanest student digs deal

Evergreen, M3 Capital Partners’ principal investment vehicle, has sold its 6875-bed Urbanest Australia student accommodation portfolio and platform to global operator Scape.

The sale, which won Foreign Investment Review Board approval in March, is valued at more than $2 billion and is the largest ever student accommodation transaction in Australia.

The disposal includes 14 student accommodation assets in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, as well as market-leading purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) platform Urbanest Australia. In addition, the University of Melbourne has purchased 527 beds from Evergreen that are currently under construction. Savills advised the vendor.

To fund the deal, Scape’s core fund raised about $1 billion in debt last Friday, a move that allowed cornerstone investors Allianz Real Estate and AXA Investment Managers Real Assets to increase their equity and APG Asset Management, an investor in Scape’s separate development fund, to take equity in the core fund.

Conal Newland, head of student accommodation at Savills Australia, said the completion of the transaction by Scape and its investment partners “given the current pandemic conditions reinforces the strength of the long-term investment fundamentals underpinning the Australian PBSA sector”.

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