L&G bags 151 student homes in Edinburgh for £35m
A fund managed by Legal & General has bought a purpose-built student accommodation scheme in Edinburgh for £35m.
The 151-bed block, known as Lower Gilmore Place in the city’s Fountainbridge area, has been acquired off-market by L&G’s Managed Fund from Glencairn Properties, which has been retained to deliver the scheme.
Glencairn has initially assembled and developed the site, with the first phase comprising 69 beds and completed in the summer of 2023. The second phase has been forward funded and will provide a further 82 student beds upon completion.
A fund managed by Legal & General has bought a purpose-built student accommodation scheme in Edinburgh for £35m.
The 151-bed block, known as Lower Gilmore Place in the city’s Fountainbridge area, has been acquired off-market by L&G’s Managed Fund from Glencairn Properties, which has been retained to deliver the scheme.
Glencairn has initially assembled and developed the site, with the first phase comprising 69 beds and completed in the summer of 2023. The second phase has been forward funded and will provide a further 82 student beds upon completion.
Rob Codling, senior fund manager for asset management at L&G, said: “PBSA and operational real estate sectors continue to be a key growth area for the fund, and this acquisition enables the fund to benefit from operational income as well as acquiring a newly developed scheme.”
Daryl Teague, managing director of Glencairn Properties, commented: “PBSA has been, and will continue to act as, a catalyst for regeneration in the Fountainbridge area, bringing life to once industrial uses.”
Euan Kelly, capital markets partner at Knight Frank, which advised L&G, said: “The sale of Lower Gilmore Place underlines the strength and depth of investor demand for PBSA assets in Edinburgh. The supply-demand dynamic in the city is still highly favourable to developers, and this scheme is in a prime location between the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Napier.
“More widely, transactions like this point to the level of investor interest we are seeing across Russell Group university cities, given the resilience of demand from students for places at these institutions. As such, we expect more PBSA deals to follow during 2025.”
Ryden represented the vendor.
Image from Legal & General
