Investors pouring into London student housing as values rise

London

JOYCE Ge, a student from China who is studying business management at King's College, pays £880 (S$1,830) a month to live in a pint-size, stylish studio apartment in the far reaches of east London, in a building with roof decks gazing toward the distant city skyline. Her rent covers water and electricity, as well as Wi-Fi and cleaning of common spaces every two weeks.

Many investors are betting that there will be a lot more Joyce Ges arriving in the coming years.

Their bet is a simple one: As students from the world's growing middle and upper classes flock to London for higher education, the stark supply-demand imbalance in student housing will grow.

International college students are pouring into London, deepening an extensive housing shortage. The result is that student housing is becoming another red-hot corner of the city's property market. That has tempted international pension funds, major private equity players and real estate giants to build up or sell off large portfolios of buildings for handsome profits. The values of many of these portfolios are rising (and consequently, yields are falling) as a re…