Penta Capital invested £45m in 2017 for the development of four sites in the north of England into student and private rental accommodation, which once complete, should total more than a thousand beds.

Penta decided to back an experienced local team, headed by Mark Cavell, to redevelop two sites in Sheffield, one in Nottingham and one in Leicester, all with good proximity to the student catchment areas.

The investment rationale was to acquire long-vacant sites off-market at attractive prices, develop them with disciplined cost control, and ultimately to take advantage of the supply/demand imbalance in the private rental sector and the compression in rental yields that has accompanied the emergence of student housing as a real estate asset class.

One of the Sheffield sites was sold in 2019, and we expect to sell a further two sites in 2022.