Student residences: a playground for foreign investors

Investment volumes in managed residential real estate jumped by 122% to €719 million in H1 2025 compared with the same period last year, largely thanks to the student residences segment. Whereas investments in coliving and senior residences fell by 94% and 55% respectively in the first six months of the year, those in student residences rose from €98 million last year to €691 million this year, a performance largely driven by the appetite of foreign investors.

" Mathieu Guillebault, Head of Residential Capital Markets at Savills France, reports in the pages of the latest Business Immo Global magazine: "Since the beginning of the year, new international players have been expressing the aim of investing primarily in student residences, or by extension in residences for young professionals.

Gecina's sale of the YouFirst Campus portfolio for €538 million was a key transaction in the student market at the start of the year. This transaction saw Anglo-Saxon companies Nuveen Real Estate and Global Student Accommodation enter the French market through the front door.

The appetite of international investors for French student residences was also confirmed when CBRE Investment Management sold its France Campus portfolio. According to our information, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Quinspark Investment Partners were in the^2nd round of the highly competitive bidding process, ahead of other Anglo-Saxon contenders such as Barings and Morgan Stanley.

Of the eight major transactions listed by Business Immo since the start of 2025, only one was a French buyer, Quinspark Investment Partners... and this was in a joint venture with an American management company.

That's without counting Norges Bank Investment Management of Norway, which in the spring invested €240 million in The Boost Society, a platform dedicated to managed residential property owned by Axa IM Alts, whose Kley brand is among the leaders in the student segment in France.

"In April, Guilain Decrop, Head of Continental Europe Real Estate at Norges Bank Investment Management, told us that the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund had "obviously identified France as one of the major markets in Europe". Clearly, the trend may well continue for some time to come.