Kayne Anderson buys $19.3m of student housing

Kayne Anderson Real Estate Partners has acquired two student housing complexes from ING Real Estate for $19.3 million.

The properties are located at Virginia Commonwealth University’s campus in Richmond, Virginia.

According to a statement from Jones Lang LaSalle, Kayne Anderson Real Estate, part of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, bought the RAMZ Hall and Capital Garage buildings for a combined $19.3 million. The loan secured on the properties was assumable.

A spokeswoman for Jones Lang LaSalle said the seller was ING Real Estate operating out of Australia.

JLL Capital Markets managing director Alex Quintana, who worked on the deal, said: “When these assets went out in the market last summer, the debt markets were challenging, to say the least … Assumable debt was a key factor in attracting a wide variety of investors.”

Kayne Anderson Real Estate Partners' is led by Albert Ramil. Ramil joined Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors as senior managing director of its real estate operations in 2007 after founding the real estate investment firms RAMZ and Rabil Properties between 2002 and 2007. He has also previously worked for UBS' real estate banking group.

Private equity real estate firms have traditionally seen student housing as a recession-resistant sector.

In February, Blue Vista Capital Management bought two properties valued at around $48 million through a $280 million joint venture fund it has formed with developer Place Properties. The two firms are also targeting over-leveraged owners who are about to, or have had, properties repossessed by banks.