The firm achieved this milestone following the completion of a 51-month, £65m facility to global PBSA provider Scape, which will fund the development of a 693-unit scheme in Leeds, due to complete in time for the 2024/2025 academic year.

Since 2011, Investec Real Estate has provided finance for over 17 PBSA clients, supporting the delivery of 22,000 beds across 52 schemes in 23 cities.

Some of the firm’s most notable transactions in the PBSA sector include a £64m senior loan to CA Ventures to fund the delivery of 888 PBSA beds in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Sheffield; and a £52m  facility to Scape to fund the development of a PBSA/co-living scheme in Guildford, west Surrey.

•   Hilltop launches real estate funding and management platform
•   Investec provides £1.2bn of senior finance
•   Investec provides its first modular construction loan for Guildford student scheme

The company also provided an £11m senior facility to Stelling Investments for the development of a 99-studio development in Guildford — the first modular project funded by the lender.

Mark Bladon, head of Investec Real Estate (pictured above), commented: “Having been one of the first UK lenders back in 2011 to recognise the institutional grade returns that PBSA could generate, we have followed through on our conviction call, becoming the partner of choice to a raft of highly reputable domestic and international investors and developers.

“In particular, we were attracted by the sector’s structural and demographic drivers, as well as countercyclical characteristics, with the latter in particular borne out during the recent periods of social, political and economic disruption.

“The past decade has seen us be an active lender in this space, and this milestone is testament to the embedded platform that the expert team here has built.

“The sector remains a key focus and we have strong pipeline of borrower seeking bespoke funding solutions for high-quality and environmentally responsible schemes.”