Amro’s Iberian PBSA portfolio hits key milestones

Amro Partners’ Iberian student housing portfolio has achieved several significant project milestones this summer as we continue to grow our presence in the region and drill down on our sector leading ESG commitments.

Bookings have opened at Amro Porto, our debut Portuguese student housing project launching to market in January 2024 under the Amro Estudiantes operating brand. Targeting a BREEAM Outstanding rating, the project will provide 151 new student beds with amenities comprising study rooms, terraces, gym, padel court and outdoor spaces, within a 5 to 15-minute walk of five higher education institutions including University of Porto and Portucalense University.

Construction will commence shortly in Alicante, where we are aiming to deliver the greenest student housing project in Iberia – a further significant step up from our existing BREEAM Outstanding rated assets in Seville, Valencia, Madrid and Pamplona.

The first student housing development in Spain to adopt a Passivhaus design discipline, Amro Alicante will target a reduction in energy use intensity to just 100kW/m2.yr and total heating demand to <15 kW/m2.yr, with investment in fabric efficiency and solar control in line with the Paris Agreements’ 1.5 degree celsius carbon emissions reduction pathway. In addition, based on in-house, machine learning-led data insights, we plan to invest in commercially viable energy storage capacity in the next 12 months with the aim of further decreasing reliance on the grid.

Construction work is also well underway in Salamanca, one of Spain’s most historic university cities, where we are developing a 170-bed student housing scheme which will be one of Spain’s first climate negative buildings on completion in September next year. Salamanca is home to 30,000 students, with approximately 70% in need of dedicated student accommodation.

Meanwhile projects in Valencia and Madrid have both achieved full occupancy in their first full year of operation, with Seville, which opened in September 2022, also forecast to achieve full occupancy prior to commencement of the current academic year.

Raj Kotecha, Co-founder and CEO of Amro Partners, said: “Amid challenging market conditions, the Iberian student housing sector continues to prove its remarkable resilience. Occupancy rates across our portfolio are testament to strong demand for high quality, professionally managed student housing and we continue to identify further opportunities for growth, including in new markets such as Germany and the Netherlands where we expect to announce new site acquisitions in the coming months. By future-proofing our portfolio through a combination of fabric efficiency and operational emissions management, using our own in-house data insights, we will drive long-term demand for our proposition from both tenants and investors.”