Scape Australia has acquired a portfolio of student housing assets from a Sydney university for its Scape Student Core Fund.
It is believed that Scape Australia paid University of Technology Sydney A$95m (鈧�59m) for the portfolio of 428 beds on Sydney CBD鈥檚 fringe.
Craig Carracher, co-founder and executive chairman of Scape Australia, declined to comment on the price paid for the portfolio, but he told 91传媒在线 the fund had held a fourth round of capital raising to pay for the acquisition.
With the latest round, he said, the core fund had raised equity of more than A$2bn and owned assets worth some A$4.5bn.
Carracher said the key investors in the fund were APG, , Allianz and Bouwinvest, with four founders of the Scape business in Australia, who had a 2% interest, also taking part in the latest capital raising.
Carracher said Scape Australia was on track to establish 25,000 student beds in Australia. 鈥淲e have 16,000 beds today, we have 6,000 under construction and approved for development, and we are working on a further 3,000.鈥�
Scape鈥檚 investors remained committed and optimistic about the long-term future of student accommodation in Australia in spite of the disruptions wrought by COVID-19, he said.
International travel bans had dramatically reduced occupancies in the portfolio, to an average of 25% nationally.
The company is working the NSW state government on a pilot plan to return international students, hopefully starting from November.
鈥淭he current rule for incoming students is they must have vaccination and still do quarantine. We are confident it is very likely that the review on vaccines will be done before the end of the year.鈥�
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