(Bloomberg) -- Singapore's sovereign wealth fund and Dubai-based GSA bought a portfolio of U.K. student housing projects from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management LP.
The sale includes nine buildings with space for 3,634 students and five developments that will add more than 3,500 additional beds once completed, GIC Pte and GSA said in a statement on Thursday. The properties were expected to sell for about 430 million pounds ($559 million), Property Week reported earlier. A spokeswoman for GSA, which owns student housing provider Uninest, declined to comment on the sale price.
“As a long-term investor, we believe student accommodation will be a sector that continues to deliver steady rental growth and resilient income returns amidst a challenging, low-yield environment,” Madeleine Cosgrave, a regional head at GIC's real estate unit, said in the statement.
Institutions are buying more real estate because they face investment returns that will be lower than historical gains and in some cases less than what they need to meet their liabilities, Oaktree Capital Group LLC co-chairman Howard Marks said at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in New York Wednesday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Sidders in London at jsidders@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman
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