Residential investments in Europe used to be the domain of certain specialised investors but that is now changing as other players that have previously invested exclusively in office or retail are looking at investments in the living sector. Maximilian Mendel, Head of Living Investment at JLL in Poland, talked to Property Forum about current trends in CEE residential investment.

In 2020, student housing markets in Europe are expected to grow stronger with Poland becoming one of the most attractive countries at a continental level. Stefan Kolibar, Head of Marketing at Bonard talked to Property Forum about the trends driving this segment regionally and globally.

Student housing continued its record growth last year, booking over €9bn in international transactions, excluding the US. As student numbers are growing faster than supply, the asset class remains a top-4 sector prospect for investments in 2020, as shown by a recent study carried out by global research specialist Bonard.

Investment manager Corestate Capital Holding S.A. has agreed on a new partnership with Bain Capital Credit. Bain Capital Credit is a leading global credit specialist with approximately €41 billion in assets under management. The agreement establishes a financing partnership in Poland within the micro living sector, specifically to co-invest in properties and convert them into student housing. The partnership has the initial capability to develop up to €500 million GAV. The agreement also includes asset and property management contracts.

In 2019, the Polish housing market experienced an acceleration and increase of projects in the rental and private student housing sectors. Poland is still on the radar of large foreign investors and some of them have been able to conclude spectacular deals. Although potential institutional buyers still aren’t able to purchase turn-key portfolios on an expected scale, and entering the market mostly means building new stock, the institutional rental sector is drawing more and more interest and will undoubtedly become a desired category of safe assets in 2020.

The Catella European Residential (CER) Fund has acquired a mixed-use development project of residential apartments and student accommodation in the Polish city of Kraków for around €20 million from U.S. developer Hines.

The share of private sector student accommodation in Prague stood at 6% of the total stock of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) in October 2019, up slightly from the 5% recorded at the same time last year, according to the latest Savills research.

One of the region’s most active investment managers, Griffin Real Estate has ambitious plans to further expand its portfolio in several market segments, potentially outside of Poland as well. Stanislav Frnka, the company’s Senior Partner has talked to Property Forum at Expo Real about Griffin’s investment strategy and the asset classes they’re exploring.

As we are nearing the end of the cycle and investors are looking to diversify their portfolios, student housing’s counter-cyclical nature is becoming increasingly attractive. Samuel Vetrak, CEO of Bonard, talked to Property Forum about recent developments on the European student housing market. Samuel will also chair a panel discussion on student housing at the upcoming CEE Property Forum 2019 in Vienna.

Kajima Student Housing Limited (KSH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kajima Europe and part of Kajima Corporation, a Japanese real estate investment, development and construction company, has, in partnership with Griffin Real Estate Partners (GRE) acquired Student Depot, Poland’s largest provider of student accommodation, from Oaktree Capital Management.