This Week's London Deal Sheet: Barings Acquires £101M Student Accommodation Scheme

The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email mark.faithfull@bisnow.com. 

Barings has completed the acquisition of a purpose-built student accommodation scheme in Vauxhall, London, for £101M on behalf of a European value-add real estate strategy and in a joint venture with Rosethorn Capital.

Purchased from CLS Holdings, Spring Mews is a 378-bed PBSA scheme consisting of 306 clusters and 72 studios, with coworking space, a gym, a pool, a cinema and games room as well as outdoor space exclusive to residents. The development has a BREEAM Very Good certification and an EPC A rating. 

Rosethorn is a newly formed asset manager of PBSA across the UK and will manage the scheme.

“This is the third acquisition in as many months for our value add fund strategies, all of which have been in the living sector, which is a primary focus at this current point in the cycle considering the sector’s resilient qualities," Barings Real Estate Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for the European closed-end value-add real estate fund series Rory Allan said in a statement." We have a deep pipeline of further investments as we look to take advantage of opportunities thrown up by wider macro volatility and dislocation.” 

DEALS

Tristan Capital Partners’ opportunistic fund European Property Investors Special Opportunities 6 has acquired the easyHotel business, which comprises circa 4,700 keys spread across 48 hotels and 11 countries.

The share capital of easyHotel group was acquired from a consortium of existing shareholders, with the asset value estimated at €400M. These include Citrus Holdco, a holding vehicle for Luxembourg-based real estate fund manager ICAMAP and Ivanhoé Cambridge, as well as easyHotel founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who held a 17.4% stake.

The acquisition of easyHotel includes an estate of 48 hotels comprising 16 franchised sites and 32 owned and leased hotels across the UK and Ireland, France, Benelux, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Hungary and Bulgaria.

The shareholders intend to “significantly grow” the easyHotel platform,” Tristan said in a statement.

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Unite Group has exchanged contracts for the disposal of nine properties to an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm Lone Star Funds for £212M.

The Bristol-based owner and manager of student accommodation said it will take a £140M share from the sale of the 3,656-bed portfolio and that the disposal is part of its strategy to “increase alignment to high and mid-ranked universities and those properties with the strongest prospects for sustainable long-term rental growth.”

The portfolio includes assets in Aberdeen, Leicester, Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield and Unite said proceeds will be reinvested into its strongest markets, including its recently announced partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Warehouse REIT has agreed to sell itself to Blackstone for £470M after the investment firm lowered its bid for the company due to valuation-related issues uncovered during due diligence.

The 111p a share offer price agreed represents a 34% premium to Warehouse REIT's closing stock price on 28 February, the day before Blackstone's initial bid with global investment firm Sixth Street Partners was disclosed.

The acquisition will be put to Warehouse REIT shareholders at a court and general meeting.

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Investec Bank has announced that Investec Realis, the equity strategy that it launched last year, has acquired The Office, a 33K SF office on Circus Street in Brighton city centre, from Scape.

It is the second in partnership with XLB Property, which will act as asset manager on the building, which was delivered in 2021. Investec Realis and XLB intend to undertake a “light, ESG focused refurbishment programme”, which will include amenity upgrades and achieving a BREEAM Excellent certification, the companies said.

“We continue to see a unique buying opportunity within prime offices due to a mismatch in soft investment asset pricing and strong occupational market performance in select locations,” Investec Real Estate Equity Specialist Tom Punch said in a statement.

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Herbert Group, which owns Forestside shopping centre in south Belfast, has bought the Abbey Centre in Newtownabbey for just under £59M from New River Retail.

Last year, Herbert Group also bought the Bloomfield Shopping Centre and retail park in Bangor for £22M. The company built up the UK's largest KFC franchise over 40 years before selling the chain in 2020.

In a statement, Allan Lockhart, the chief executive of New River Retail, said the company had transformed the Abbey Centre into "one of the most successful shopping centres in the region" and said that the deal "also demonstrates the continuing improvement in investor demand for UK shopping centres".

CORPORATE

Ashen Capital and residential land and planning promotion specialist Merrow Wood have created a new partnership to acquire or promote land suitable for housing through the planning system.

The new business, under the Merrow Wood brand, is aimed at working with landowners to deliver a suitable planning permission on sites that are "locationally sustainable and with the most housing need," the partners said.

Merrow Wood has been seeded with an initial circa £2M of equity to promote land in five locations in the southeast of England, which together should total circa 500 houses over the next five years. Over the next two years, the Merrow Wood equity commitment from the parties will increase to up to £5M, which they said they believe will enable them to deliver up to 1,500 homes.

LEASING

British Land has agreed five F&B deals representing over 15K SF of letting activity at Broadgate.

Wine bar Vagabond will open in Broadgate Central, Spanish-inspired Bar Kroketa has recently opened and Velvet Tacos is taking space in Broadgate Circle, joining Lebanese restaurant Comptoir Libanais and Neapolitan pizzeria Franco Manca which have each re-signed for another 10 years.

In February British Land announced that it had delivered circa 200K SF of office leasing activity since the start of 2025 and added a number of fashion brands at Broadgate Central, including Ralph Lauren, Mango, Luca Faloni, Hobbs and Whistles.

SUSTAINABILITY

Grosvenor has started work on the transformation of Grosvenor Square in London’s Mayfair, with the creation of an “extraordinary urban garden with groundbreaking environmental credentials”, the company said.  

The rejuvenated Grosvenor Square, London’s second largest garden square, will be the fourth redesign of the square in its 300-year history, originated by London-based architect Tonkin Liu and delivered by BDP. It will feature circa 70,000 new plants, 44 new trees, new wetlands and circa 80,000 new bulbs.  

PEOPLE

Hammerson CEO Rita-Rose Gagne has revealed plans to step down in 2026 after five years in the top job. She will stay in post as chief executive for the next 12 months while the group seeks her successor and to ensure a smooth handover.

She took on the role in November 2020, joining from Ivanhoé Cambridge, where she was president of growth markets and has overseen the realignment of the UK REIT’s portfolio.