Scape Wins Commitment From CBRE IM for $3.8B Student Housing Fund

Australia’s biggest owner-operator of student housing, Scape, continues to scoop up commitments for its flagship core fund, with the group on Thursday announcing CBRE Investment Management as its latest capital partner.

The fund management arm of property services giant CBRE is making the investment through its indirect private real estate strategy, Scape said Thursday in a release. The undisclosed amount of funding marks the inaugural partnership between Manhattan-based CBRE IM and Sydney’s Scape.

Earlier this year, Scape converted its flagship purpose-built student accommodation vehicle into a A$6 billion ($3.8 billion) open-ended core fund, drawing A$1 billion in additional funding from existing backers — including Dutch fund managers APG and Bouwinvest, South Korea’s National Pension Service and Canadian heavyweight CDPQ — as well as new investor UBS Asset Management.

“We are excited to have a high-profile investment manager such as CBRE IM Indirect show confidence in the fund and our platform,” said Stephen Gaitanos, managing director of Scape Australia. “It will provide their clients with immediate access to a well-diversified portfolio of the highest-quality PBSA asset and allowing us further opportunity for expansion.”

Club Expansion

The fresh capital announced this year was used to expand the core fund through a merger with six Scape-built assets and two development sites valued at A$2 billion. Scape has highlighted the open-ended fund’s liquidity, with investors able to subscribe or redeem every quarter.

As Scape fund manager Ben Taylor told MTD TV in March, the fund was originally set up as a closed-end club of a few large investors with a strategy to participate in the consolidation of the student housing sector. As the vehicle expanded via acquisitions of two large portfolios and projects from Scape’s own pipeline, the investors grew supportive of converting to open-ended — not with an eye towards an exit, but rather to maintain their exposure to the portfolio.

CBRE IM Indirect said it was attracted by the quality of the portfolio, Scape’s management capabilities and a fund structure suited to its clients, allowing for long-term ownership and growth opportunity with moderate risk.

“The living sector is a preferred investment theme globally and having exposure to high-quality, core PBSA real estate with Scape complements our existing student accommodation investments worldwide, which include both income-generating assets and develop-to-core strategies where markets are undersupplied,” said Alex Crossing, head of APAC at CBRE IM Indirect.

With an in-place portfolio of 33 operational PBSA assets and 16,300 beds across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, the fund will continue to have access to Scape’s 6,000-bed development pipeline and market opportunities, the group said.

Tight Supply Persists

Australia’s PBSA market recorded A$1.8 billion in investment in the first quarter of 2025, according to Knight Frank, with volume led by US-based Greystar’s A$1.6 billion purchase of a seven-asset portfolio from Singapore sovereign fund GIC and SGX-listed Wee Hur Holdings.

Despite continued policy uncertainty, tight supply in the student market presents an ongoing opportunity for the increasing number of investors keen to deploy capital into living sectors, the consultancy said in its PBSA update.

Last year saw the delivery of 2,014 student beds, of which more than 80 percent were in Sydney and the rest in Melbourne, the report said. Of the 6,912 beds under construction, 2,772 are due for completion in 2025, up 38 percent from last year.

“We are at the ready to fulfil the clear need for more well-designed and located PBSA rental accommodation supporting the delivery of new housing solutions and relieving the demand on urban housing needs around our universities,” said Scape Australia executive chairman Craig Carracher.