Accrue offloads Ladybarn House to Empiric

Empiric Student Property has acquired the 145-year leasehold of a 117-bed property in Manchester for £10.25m from Accrue Capital.

Ladybarn House in Fallowfield was built in 1994 by the University of Manchester, which remains the freeholder, and was subsequently comprehensively refurbished by Accrue Capital in 2012. The property comprises 117 beds over three floors in a mix of studios, one-bed apartments and four-bed en suite apartments, with communal facilities. The property has four ground floor retail units, all let.

CRM Student will continue to manage the property until it is moved onto Empiric’s Hello Student platform, currently envisaged to be for the 2016/17 academic year.

Paul Hadaway, chief executive of Empiric Student Property, said: “Ladybarn House is our second acquisition in Manchester, a city with a high student population, 61,990 full-time students in 2014/15, of which 23.5% are international and 17.5% are postgraduate (according to the latest available HESA statistics). The property is located in the vibrant student suburb of Fallowfield, with its numerous bars, restaurants and shops as well as direct bus links to the city centre and the University of Manchester’s main campus. This acquisition is in line with Empiric’s investment criteria and returns profile.”