Student Housing Heavyweights Scape, GSA, Wee Hur and Mapletree to Take Stage

With average rents for student housing in Sydney having risen 50 percent since 2018, according to Knight Frank, and with leasing rates climbing in other urban centres, student housing is rapidly becoming a core asset class for institutional investors and will be the feature of a dedicated session at the Mingtiandi Singapore Forum on 13 May.

So far this year, in Australia alone investors have acquired more than A$1.6 billion ($1 billion) in purpose-built accommodation assets, according to the property consultancy’s research, with major transactions also taking place in the UK and North America.

To learn more about strategies for achieving returns on student accommodation strategies, Mingtiandi has invited senior executives from Singapore’s Mapletree Investments, Australia’s Scape, SGX-listed Wee Hur Holdings and London’s Global Student Accommodation Group to join a panel as part of the Mingtiandi Singapore Forum on 13 May.

The discussion is part of a series of expert-led talks at the full-day event, which is sponsored by Yardi and takes place at the Conrad Centennial Hotel in Singapore. More than 45 speakers are due to take the stage at the event, with over 250 executives expected to attend. Tickets to the forum are still available at the link above.

Managing Australian, European Portfolios

Panellists include Tjarko Edzes, chief capital officer at Scape, the biggest player in Australia’s PBSA market. Edzes is responsible for capital sourcing and investor relations globally and executing real estate acquisition opportunities across Australia and Asia.

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 around A$1 billion in additional funding from existing investors, as well as new investor UBS Asset Management.

Joining Edzes will be Victor Lor, Asia Pacific head of investment management for GSA, Wee Hur’s CIO Wee Ping Goh and Mapletree’s student housing head Matt Walker. Laurent Fischler, former Ivanhoe Cambridge Asia head of investment, will moderate.

GSA is a leader in PBSA with around $7 billion of assets under management across 11 countries. Lor’s responsibilities include all investment and asset management related activities across Australia and Japan, and responsibility for all capital raising across the Asia Pacific.

Singapore-listed Wee Hur recently made headlines with the completion last month of the A$1.6 billion ($1 billion) sale of Australian student accommodation it held with GIC to US giant Greystar.

Since Greystar inked the deal in December, investors including Korea’s National Pension Service and M&G Real Estate of the UK have snapped up Australian assets as they seek a share of the fast-growing PBSA market there.

Mapletree has focused much of its student housing investment in Europe, including spending $1.3 billion last year to acquire a portfolio of properties near major UK universities from Temasek Holdings-controlled Cuscaden Peak Investments.

Interviews with Warburg Pincus, Equalbase

In addition to the student housing session, a keynote panel will feature Oxford Properties’ Asia Pacific head Alessandro Fiascaris, George Agethen of CDPQ, Knight Frank Singapore chief executive Galven Tan and Hilton Asia Pacific president Alan Watts for a look at the biggest challenges facing the real estate sector in the year of trade wars and tariffs.

Also on the schedule are panels on hospitality investment, Asia Pacific industrial and infrastructure assets, Singapore’s role as a global capital hub, Australian living strategies, India investment opportunities and residential investment across Asia Pacific.

Mingtiandi will also interview top industry executives on stage, including a spotlight session with Nicholas Bischoff, chief executive of Stonepeak-backed logistics specialist Equalbase, who will be appearing together with Jon Sim, investment director of the company’s Northmod fund management affiliate.

Another interview will feature Bart Price the newly minted CEO of Vita Partners Real Assets, a life sciences real estate joint venture between Warburg Pincus and Lendlease. Joining Price will be Warburg Pincus principal Tag Yuxiang, who developed the Vita Partners venture from its early stages, and CBRE consultant Rimon Ambarchi, who advised the JV on its purchase of a $1.2 billion Singapore portfolio from a Blackstone partnership late last year.

A third interview will bring on stage Stephen Gaitanos, founder, group CEO and managing director of Asia Pacific’s largest student accommodation provider Scape, for a discussion of the future of Australia’s residential market and how investors can benefit from helping to address the country’s housing challenges.

Full details of the event are available on Mingtiandi here.