Union Investment has acquired Living House Berlin, a co-living concept with 172 furnished rooms, for its Urban Living Nr. 1 special fund. It is the first smart building in the student accommodation sector. The property, which opened in autumn 2018 and was fully let from the start, is located some 400 metres from the campus of HTW Berlin. With around 14,000 students, the HTW is the largest university of applied sciences in Berlin. The vendor and developer is Carnaby Capital. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Living House Berlin offers 53 shared apartments, with two to five private rooms. The six-storey KfW 55 energy efficient new build was designed by Berlin-based architects Braunlin + Kolb. The average all-in rent is under €500 per month, making it very attractive to HTW students, students of other institutions and young professionals.
“Living House Berlin sets benchmarks for contemporary student accommodation in Germany and is the first development project to be completed in line with Carnaby Capital’s smart building concept,” said Tom Leppin, founder and managing partner of Carnaby Capital. “We are delighted to have sold the building to a large institutional investor like Union Investment as this demonstrates great confidence in our product,” added Carnaby Capital shareholder Dr. Per Leßmann.
“Carnaby Capital’s co-living concept is a compelling response to the problem of ever-increasing rents. We found the all-in monthly rent of under €500 and close proximity to the HTW campus highly attractive. Based on the level of rent, we anticipate that it will be possible to let rooms in Living House Berlin to a relatively large number of students. As such, we expect assured long-term letting viability.”
“Tenants of Living House Berlin make extensive use of the operating platform’s digitised services. This proves that we accurately anticipated the needs of our target audience when designing the platform,” said Tom Leppin.
