Empiric buys Urban Sleep portfolio
Empiric Student Property has acquired the freeholds of six student accommodation assets in Liverpool from Urban Sleep as part of a portfolio of 502 beds for cash and debt of £41.6m.
The seven-asset portfolio was acquired for £22.8m and assumed debt of £18.8m which has been retained post completion, resulting in a total acquisition value of £41.6m.
The debt facility is provided by Santander at a margin of 2.5% above LIBOR with a remaining term of approximately four years.
Urban Sleep will continue to manage the operation of the properties on behalf of Empiric. The properties are already 92% pre-let across the portfolio for 2015/16 and are being acquired with a rent guarantee for this period.
The Liverpool portfolio comprises six individual buildings, five of which are close to each other on or around Myrtle Street and one is a short walk away. Myrtle Street is the southern boundary of the University of Liverpool’s main campus and is less than a five minute walk from Liverpool John Moores University’s Mount Pleasant campus.
The buildings in Liverpool are Art School Lofts, Maple House, Chatham Lodge, Hayward House, the Octagon and Grove Street Studios.
The other property in the portfolio is Caledonia Mill in Stoke-on-Trent.