German-headquartered property investor Commerz Real has acquired Stoneybatter Place, a 142-bed student accommodation complex near Technological University Dublin’s (TUD) main campus at Grangegorman in Dublin 7.
While the price paid for the portfolio has not been disclosed, an examination of the Property Price Register shows two sales with a combined value of €31.2 million being recorded for the Stoneybatter Place development on August 5th.
Commerz Real purchased the scheme, which is almost fully leased, from US investor Harrison Street Asset Management for its Institutional Smart Living Europe Fund.
The Stoneybatter Place development also features study and lounge areas, a gym and rooftop terraces. The scheme, which was completed in 2023, has been and will continue to be operated on a day-to-day basis by Mezzino, a company specialising in the management of student accommodation in Ireland and Britain.
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Students pay between €300 and €380 a week to rent bedspaces at the complex, plus utility fees to €48 or €65 a week depending on the type of unit they occupy.
News of the deal comes just over nine months on from Commerz Real’s €22.35 million purchase for the same fund of the nearby Swuite Dublin student residential scheme from its developer-owner, the Iveragh Group. Completed in 2018, this has 128 beds along with common areas that include a lounge, study room and a café.
The acquisition of the Swuite complex had originally been planned for 2020 but was cancelled following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Commerz Real’s open-ended special AIF Commerz Real Institutional Smart Living Fund invests in student accommodation and micro-apartment complexes in European cities and university cities on behalf of professional and semi-professional investors. In addition to its two properties in Dublin, the fund’s portfolio has three residential complexes located in Frankfurt am Main, Seville and Vienna respectively.
