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Nabarro builds momentum in student accommodation sector

12 April 2011

The Nabarro real estate team continues to develop its market leading reputation for advising on student accommodation transactions with two deals worth £60 million for the BP Pension Fund in Manchester and Possfund Custodian Trustees in Cambridge.

Nabarro is benefiting from an increasing trend for institutional clients to invest in student accommodation as purpose built flats replace rooms in privately rented houses as a favoured option for both international and domestic graduates and undergraduates.

The BP Pension Fund development worth £20.8 million is at the heart of Manchester and will comprise 416 rooms to be completed by June 2012. Nabarro, the sole provider of real estate legal advice to the BP Pension Fund, acted on all aspects of the transaction including real estate, construction, planning, environmental issues and tax, particularly in relation to VAT.

Nabarro also advised on the setting up of an innovative, institutionally acceptable form of management agreement and issues around rights of light.

In Cambridge, Nabarro advised Possfund Custodian Trustees (acting via LaSalle Investment Management) on the forward funding and development of a property worth £40 million to be used primarily for student accommodation (over 500 beds), but also for retail purposes on a larger estate close to the railway station.

Martin Grabiner, the real estate partner at Nabarro who led the teams acting on both transactions, said:

"The development of new student accommodation continues to be a growth area in the property market with increasing interest from institutional investors as evidenced by these two recent deals. Nabarro has long worked with some of the biggest names in the sector and we're delighted our expertise in this area has won us the opportunity to work on these two exciting developments in two of the UK's great university cities."

Martin Grabiner was supported by James Mackay, Alistair McGrigor, Simon Rose and Rachel Hine on the BP Pension Fund transaction and by Mario Michael, Penny Moore, Simon Rose, Emma Tuppen, Joshua Risso-Gill, Nicola Insley and Alex Ibrahim on the Possfund transaction.

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