Hines acquires new student housing building in Bristol
Hines continues to bet on the UK’s student accommodation sector. The global real estate investor, developer and property manager has acquired a new 260 bed PBSA development at Gas Lane in Bristol on behalf of the Hines European Property Partners Fund (HEPP).
The agreed sale will represent the first transaction between Hines and Watkin Jones, a leading UK developer and manager of residential for rent.
The site will provide much-needed new student housing supply in Bristol and is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2025/26 academic year.
“The creation of class-A student living schemes in our preferred markets is a high-conviction investment theme for us and we’re delighted to have secured another asset in a prime location”, said Jorge Duarte, senior managing director and fund manager, HEPP. “The number of students going into education has grown exponentially and the undersupply of purpose-built student housing in the UK is well documented. Schemes like this one provide the opportunity to play our part in building the PBSA that the UK desperately needs, while seeking to deliver real value to our investors.”
Part of Bristol Temple Quarter, the UK’s largest regeneration zone, it seeks to transform the current brownfield site into a new student community, creating 219 ensuite cluster bedrooms and 41 self-contained studios along with best-in-class amenities including a landscaped roof terrace.
The site lies next to the University of Bristol’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus with the main Bristol train station, Temple Meads, less than half a mile away, offering transport links to London Paddington and Oxford in approximately 90 minutes and to Bath in 10 minutes.
“Bristol continues to be one of the UK’s leading PBSA markets with two high performing institutions”, said George Dyer, Group Investment Director, Watkin Jones. “This scheme will play a key part in helping to address the ongoing shortage in student accommodation, offering strong ESG credentials to this vibrant student city.”
The scheme will target BREEAM Excellent, alongside WiredScore Silver. It plans to feature over 80 bicycle parking spaces, biodiverse roof areas, integrated bird and bat boxes and wildlife friendly landscaped areas. At least 80% of non-hazardous and demolition waste generated throughout the construction lifecycle will be re-used or recycled.
Upon completion, Gas Lane will be managed by aparto, Hines’ student living platform. Hines set up aparto almost a decade ago as the in-house operating platform for its student accommodation investments in Europe. As of February 2024, aparto operates more than 6,000 student beds in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Italy and this week announced two projects in Paris which will add another 1,300 beds to the portfolio and mark its entry into France.
