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Knight Frank is tapping into the huge demand among international investors for UK student accommodation by launching the sale of the 25-asset Ardent portfolio.

Offers in excess of £400 mln (€553 mln) are being sought for the portfolio, which reflects a value of £72,634 per student bed space.

The portfolio provides accommodation for 5,507 students across 12 university cities in the UK, and as such offers investors the opportunity to purchase immediate scale within the student accommodation sector.

Knight Frank is selling the Ardent portfolio on behalf of the Guernsey-based International Mutual Fund (IMF) which is in suspension. The portfolio sale has been brought about to restore liquidity to IMF.

Comment
James Pullan, head of student property at Knight Frank, said: 'The launch of the Ardent Portfolio is well timed. We know 2015 will be a record year for student numbers and has already been a record year for student investment.’

'Student accommodation is structurally undersupplied in the UK. We anticipate interest from all four corners of the globe into a sector that offers exposure to both UK residential and higher education asset classes. This portfolio offers investors one of the last remaining opportunities to secure a platform capable of being leveraged for further expansion.

'Knight Frank will be selling this portfolio through its global platform, seeking to identify the strongest international or domestic money for the disposal.'

Portfolio
The Ardent portfolio assets are located across core UK university cities, including London, Manchester, Oxford and Edinburgh. Over 94% of the portfolio lies in cities with two or more universities, which Knight Frank said, allows access to 710,000 full-time students, or 42% of the total full-time UK student population. Just over 34% of the portfolio is located in London, which has the highest density of higher education institutions in Europe.

The portfolio has a strong lettings velocity and occupancy rate. The portfolio has reversionary income potential and gross income for the September 2015-16 year is projected at £37 mln.

Investor demand
The UK student accommodation market has seen unprecedented inward investment in 2015 with transactions exceeding £3.3 bn within the first five months of the year.

International capital has been attracted by consistent year-on-year annual rental growth underpinned by the projected growth in student numbers. The number of overseas students studying in the UK is of particular interest because numbers increased by 41.5% in the decade to 2013/2014.

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