OakNorth Bank has loaned £36m to property giant Clearbell to buy seven purpose-built student residential schemes in Scotland and southern England including more than 1,800 bedrooms.
Six of the schemes to be funded by the loan to Clearbell Property Partners III LP are in Aberdeen, near both the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University.
The other scheme is the six-building Lucia Foster Welch scheme in Southampton.
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All sites will be managed by Iceni Property Asset Management, which was set up in 2018 by Matthew McAdden and works with student accommodation schemes in the UK and Ireland.
Matthew McAdden, founding director and CEO of Iceni Property, said: “The assets in Aberdeen and Southampton are in excellent locations for students attending the city’s four main universities, and we fully expect demand for them to be high.
"With student numbers increasing across the board, the team will be playing an important role in managing highly sought-after PBSAs in two of the UK’s popular student destinations."
Deepesh Thakrar, senior director of debt finance at OakNorth Bank, said: “Clearbell is a strong business with ambitious plans for the future. Its funding requirements gave us another opportunity to once again work with a high-quality institutional investor, as well as a very experienced student operator in Iceni Property.
"The student accommodation sector was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, we’re now seeing large university towns and cities bouncing back strongly, following evidenced uptake for the coming student year, as the market returns to normal with in-person lectures and seminars. We look forward to working closely with Matthew and his team on future projects moving forward.”
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