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13 September 2017 – El Confidencial
Student Properties Spain Socimi will be the first listed real estate investment company specialising in student halls of residence to debut on the stock market. And it will do so with an asset that could mark a before and after in this market in the Spanish capital.
It acquired the building at the end of 2016 from the insurance company Mapfre for €13 million. The property is located on Calle Don Ramón de la Cruz, in the heart of the Salamanca neighbourhood, just opposite Nuestra Señora del Pilar school, 200m from the Deusto Business School (the Universidad de Deusto’s business and economics school) and 500m from the IE Business School.
With a total surface area of 5,420 m2, spread over eight floors, of which 3,500 m2 are above ground, the asset used to house one of Mapfre’s private clinics. But its new owner is committed to converting it into a hall of residence for wealthy students. In fact, the property is currently being renovated by the construction company Vialterra Infraestructuras, which was awarded the building contract, with a budget of around €3 million (…) plus indirect costs of €1 million (…).
With those figures on the table, all indications are that the building will end up housing a luxury hall of residence for students, in line with The Lofttown project in Barcelona. The price of rooms is likely to reach €1,800/month. Having said that, all kinds of services will be included: an outdoor gym, a solarium, a co-working room, a private kitchen, weekly cleaning, use of a 3D printer, laundry, a Play Station, a chill-out terrace and a parking area for bikes, amongst other services.
“Projects such as The Lofttown in Barcelona are hard to replicate in many cities in Spain, and above all, they are hard to scale up. That does not mean that they cannot be attractive and even very profitable real estate investments than more standard products, but it does mean that they always have to be marketed and managed by very specialist teams. Moreover, institutional capital will always consider them to be niche products”, says Patricio Palomar, Senior Investment Consultant at AIRE Partners.
Name change and upcoming stock market debut
Don Ramón de la Cruz 37 was acquired by Collie Investment, a joint-stock company that was subsequently transformed into a Socimi. A week ago, that entity changed its corporate name to Student Properties Spain Socimi (…).
The managers behind the company are Altamar Capital Partners, whose President and founding partner is Claudio Aguirre (Goldman Sachs España), Amira Real Estate Asset Management and Orienta Capital, which is chaired by Emilio Soroa, former Director at Seguros Bilbao.
Indeed, one of the directors of Altamar, Miguel Zurita, joined the Socimi just two weeks ago to replace Fabrizio Agrimi, CEO of the firm until 28 August (…).
“In markets such as the USA, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany, student halls have gone from being considered as alternative real estate assets to being products that have as much demand and liquidity as hotels and logistics platforms. To the extent that our market converges towards that trend and becomes more mature, we are going to see products of a different quality appearing, designed for a different type of consumer, in the same way that three-star hotels exist in cities alongside super-luxury hotels”, says Palomar (…).
Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)
Translation: Carmel Drake