Maven sells Glasgow student accommodation in £7.45m deal

The announcement comes shortly after the development opened for the 2015/16 academic year and in the same week that Maven announced the opening of its latest hotel development, the ibis Styles boutique hotel in Glasgow’s vibrant Merchant City, as part of a growing UK hotel portfolio.

Ramsay Duff, Investment Director at Maven Capital Partners, said: “The sale of this development has generated good returns for Maven investors, just nine months from original investment. It demonstrates the potential for the student accommodation sector to provide attractive investor returns on the back of continued strong demand from both occupiers and institutional purchasers, particularly in areas such as Glasgow that are under-supplied with purpose-built, student accommodation. The project is a good example of Maven’s strategy of backing experienced developers to provide ‘Real Estate Private Equity’ opportunities to investors.”

Maven acquired 333 Bath Street, adjacent to the Kings Theatre, as a vacant office building and worked closely with developer partner, Calmont Property Group, to carry out a multi-million pound redevelopment of the site to provide 70 studio apartments over six floors. These highly-specified studios have access to extensive common space with a residents’ club lounge, dinner party room, private gym, on-site cinema room, seminar rooms, a quiet reading room and games area. As a result of the quality of the refurbishment, the development is close to being fully let for the 2015/16 academic year.

333 Bath Street is Maven’s second sale of a student accommodation development in Glasgow this year, following the redevelopment and sale of Claremont House, in the Kelvingrove area of the city, to a specialist European property fund for £8.37 million in the Spring. Research into the Glasgow market shows that 20,000 to 25,000 full-time students are without access to purpose-built accommodation, particularly self-contained studios which are attractive to undergraduate, postgraduate and overseas students alike. Student numbers are forecast to increase on the back of the reputation of the City’s three universities and the provision of high quality accommodation continues to present good opportunities to invest.

Maven’s property team has completed a number of other student accommodation, hotel and office developments across the UK, offering a range of opportunities to investors who are looking for well-researched and managed property deals which can generate attractive returns, typically with an element of development gain.