£19.4 million Cardiff development loan takes Investec past £500 million of funding

By Bridging Loan Directory 17th December 2018

Investec Structured Property Finance (“Investec”) announces that it has provided a Joint Venture between Crosslane Property Group and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC (the “Joint Venture” or “JV”) with a £19.4 million senior loan for the development of a 391-bed purpose-built student accommodation (“PBSA”) scheme in Cardiff. Since the start of 2015 Investec has committed over £500 million of PBSA development finance, demonstrating its continued confidence in the long-term fundamentals underpinning the strength of the sector.

Erin Clarke, Investec Structured Property Finance, commented:

“This latest facility by Investec builds on its market leading experience and expertise within the purpose built student accommodation sector, having committed over £500 million of funding to PBSA transactions during the last four years and supported the delivery of c. 14,000 beds across the country.

“Despite wider market volatility, we continue to see strong demand for well-located, good quality student accommodation schemes such as this one in Cardiff. We remain confident that the UK will continue to retain its reputation as a global leader in the provision of higher education, attracting a diverse range of both domestic and overseas students who increasingly require the desirable accommodation that we have built a market leading reputation funding.”

The JV between Crosslane and Harrison Street, announced in January 2018, originally included the development of four new PBSA developments in Leeds, Coventry, Portsmouth and Swansea, of which Investec has funded the latter three. Following this transaction, Investec has committed nearly £80 million of development debt to the Joint Venture during 2018, demonstrating its ongoing support for the partnership between Crosslane and Harrison Street and the PBSA sector as a whole.

The state of the art building will include a range of high-quality communal facilities, including a common room, study hub and gym as well as superfast 100MB WiFi throughout the building, and include a large indoor secure bicycle storage facility. In addition, students will benefit from free to use washer dryers in every kitchen, rather than a central laundry they have to pay for separately, providing further improved value and convenience. Located in Howard Gardens, inner city Adamstown, the scheme will benefit from its close proximity to city centre amenities, as well as to a number of key university campus sites, such as the Cardiff University Engineering Block and the University of South Wales.

Crosslane will act as development manager for the JV to oversee construction of the Howard Gardens site to ensure it is completed on time, ahead of the 2020/21 academic year, and to budget. Prime Student Living, the award-winning student accommodation lettings and operational management arm of the Crosslane Property Group, will be responsible for achieving full occupancy prior to practical completion and will continue to manage the building thereafter.