Pension funds paid €162m for Dublin student housing sites

US PROPERTY giant Hines paid €162m to buy four sites in Dublin that are being used or being developed as student accommodation, accounts filed in Luxembourg have revealed.

Hines bought the sites on behalf of a group of German pension funds in late 2016, but the acquisition price wasn’t divulged at the time. The four locations were sold by Oaktree Capital’s Threesixty Developments.

The four sites included The Binary Hub in the capital’s Liberties area, which opened in summer 2016 and has 470 beds.

Student accommodation schemes at two other sites – on Dorset Street and in Summerhill – were being developed at the time of the acquisition.

The fourth scheme, on a site on Cork Street, is slated to be completed next year. Hines said it intended to hold on to all the projects on a “long-term basis”.

Accounts in Luxembourg for a company behind part of the purchase show that Hines paid a total of €131.8m for The Binary Hub and the socalled Dorset Point project.

The Binary Hub cost in the region of €80m, while the Dorset Street scheme cost about €55m. Another €19.5m was spent on construction costs for the development of the Dorset Street property in the nine-month period to the end of September last year.

The Dorset Street facility has now opened and houses about 480 students.

The accounts also show that the Hines vehicle received just under €6m in rental income in the nine months to September 2017.

Accounts for another Hines entity show that the US company paid a total of €29.7m for the sites on Summerhill and Cork Street.

Of that, €25.8m related to the Summerhill scheme, with another €10.1m on construction.

Hines brands its student accommodation as Aparto.

For a 41-week tenancy, students at Beckett House will be charged a minimum of €240 per week. Basic rooms include study space and a private bathroom.

The most expensive rooms are €275 a week.

Student accommodation projects in Dublin have been the target of intense interest.

Last year, Hines splashed out €37.6m to buy the Montrose student residence beside University College Dublin. The property generates an annual rent roll of about €3m.

When UK specialists Ziggurat sold its Montrose property, it acquired other sites on the north side of the capital. It also has sites in Cork and Galway.

Hines bought the sites on behalf of a group of German pension funds in late 2016