Carlyle Enters Irish Property Market With €30M Student Housing Acquisition
U.S. private equity giant Carlyle has made its first commercial property investment in Ireland with the acquisition of the Carman’s Hall student housing development in Dublin 8.
Financial details have not been disclosed but the selling price is believed to have been around €30M.
Vendor Crosslane Student Developments will continue to act as development manager and oversee construction on the scheme, which began in August and is due to complete before the start of the 2019 academic year. The 207-room development will include three buildings of between three and six storeys.
Crosslane Director Jon Stewart said his company aims to develop 3,000 student beds in Ireland over the next three years. In August, the company bought a 0.5 acre site in Stoneybatter with planning permission for a 99-bed scheme.
Carlyle has so far focused its attention in Ireland on investing in businesses through the €292M Carlyle Cardinal Ireland private equity fund, rather than real estate. Companies that have been bought and sold by the fund have included AA Ireland, Payzone, Lily O’Brien’s and the Sam McCauley chain of pharmacies.
Carlyle has previous involvement in the student accommodation space in Europe. In 2015, it sold Pure Student Living, a 2,170-room portfolio of five schemes in London, to LetterOne Treasury Services for £532M. The group also sold its stake in the Student Hotel portfolio of three properties in the Netherlands in 2016.
