Empiric Student Property has announced that it has acquired the freehold of a 44 bed student accommodation property, Stonemason House, in Oxford for £4.5m (excluding costs). Stonemason House, which is the company’s first acquisition in Oxford, was built in 2011 as a new build scheme in time for the 2011/12 academic year. The property comprises 44 beds in a mix of four, five, six and seven-bed en-suite apartments and has been acquired from a local housing association. Since its completion in 2011, the property has been leased to St Cross College of The University of Oxford (the current three-year lease, which guarantees full occupancy for the term of the lease, is due to expire in September 2017). Empiric says that the property will be managed through its Hello Student® operating platform. Oxford is home to The University of Oxford and its Said Business School and Oxford Brookes University. The company says that there were over 32,000 full-time higher education students in Oxford for the 2014/15 academic year (according to the latest available HESA statistics), of which 31.8% were international students and 29.1% were postgraduates.
Empiric makes first Oxford acquisition – Stonemason House for £4.5m : ESP