German asset manager Commerz Real has acquired the Stoneybatter Place student apartment complex in Dublin for €31M from Harrison Street Asset Management for its Institutional Smart Living Europe Fund.

The price was revealed in figures from the Property Services Regulatory Authority.

The 142-bed Stoneybatter Place was completed by Chicago-based Harrison Street and Elkstone in 2023 as the first scheme in a proposed plan to develop 1,500 purpose-built student beds in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Galway by 2028.

In addition to furnished apartments, the scheme includes lounge areas, a gym and rooftop terraces. The current operator, Mezzino, will remain in place and also manage residential complex Grangegorman House in Dublin, acquired by the fund last year.

Since first entering the market over a decade ago, Harrison Street has developed around 4,900 rooms in the PBSA sector across Dublin and Cork, of which it still holds nearly 3,000.

The Stoneybatter Place residential complex is virtually fully leased and is located in an inner-city quarter to the west of the city centre, with the campus of Technological University Dublin within walking distance, plus connections to other higher education sites and the city centre via tram and bus routes.

Commerzbank said the decisive factor in investing in Dublin was the "long-term positive fundamental data of the location."

Earlier this year, a report by Cushman & Wakefield indicated a shortage of 34,300 PBSA spaces in Dublin, plus a substantial shortfall in Cork and Galway. It forecast that the demand in Dublin will increase from 54,000 places to roughly 64,000, with continued upward pressure on student rents.

Despite a potential pipeline of about 10,700 student accommodation places with planning permission, mostly in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, planning for almost 1,300 of these spaces is due to expire this year, the adviser said.

“While we continue to hold strong conviction in the student housing sector, increased institutional demand for high quality assets has created select opportunities for us to return liquidity to our stakeholders and reinvest capital in new assets within the space," Harrison Street Asset Management co-Head Europe Paul Bashir said in a statement.

The open-ended special AIF Commerz Real Institutional Smart Living Fund invests in the student accommodation sector and micro-apartment complexes. In addition to its two properties in Dublin, the portfolio includes three residential complexes in Frankfurt am Main, Seville and Vienna.