International Campus to spend €1bn on expansion in Europe

Munich-headquartered International Campus plans to invest €1 billion to expand its portfolio of microapartments over the next three years.

The company specialises in temporary housing concepts for students and young professionals and markets its microapartments under the brands The Fizz and and Hvns, which derives from the word “havens”.

International Campus, whose main shareholder is Brookfield, is targeting major cities such as Hamburg and Berlin but also smaller cities with popular universities. It has Austria and the Netherlands in its sights along with Germany.

“Students in particular are desperately searching for apartments everywhere. The tremendous shortage of supply in Germany can only be remedied if the Studentenwerk and the private sector work together,” said CEO Rainer Nonnengässer (pictured below).

“We are interested in plots and existing buildings in class A and B cities, in order to create more living space for the 2.9 million students across Germany,” Nonnengässer added.

He said that while Corona-related travel restrictions are currently leaving some student apartments vacant, occupancy rates remain high.

“One thing is also certain: the pandemic will pass,” he said. “We are planning for the long term and firmly believe that the number of national and international students in Germany will continue to rise.”

The company currently develops and operates 5,800 apartments in thirteen student residences branded as The Fizz in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Plans for the future include residences for professionals under the new brand name HVNS.

Meanwhile, International Campus Group’s joint venture IC Netherlands with Denz Holding and MKED Holding has been dissolved. Netherlands-based Denz has acquired the shares held by IC Group and MKED Holding and will operate the existing business under a different name.

IC Group has stressed that the Netherlands remains one of the important core markets for student apartments and under Dutch head of acquisitions, Rogier Hetterschijt, has two buildings that will operate as The Fizz, the first of which will open in the 2021 winter term.