This number close to €600 million is mainly due to two large transactional portfolios, named Erasmus and Rio. The first responds to the sale of the Resa Group, the largest operator of student residences in Spain, while the Rio project corresponds to the sale of the portfolio of residences owned by the Oaktree fund in Spain, which was acquired by the funds managed by GSA in an operation advised by JLL.
Likewise, within the volume reached in 2017, other individual asset transactions also stand out, such as the recent purchase by the European Fund "Catella European Student Housing Fund" of the La Campana student residence, located in the center of Pamplona (Navarra), as well as the acquisition in March by The Student Hotel of the old press of Cuesta de San Vicente 28 in Madrid to convert it into a residence, both operations advised by JLL.
Regarding whether this trend will continue, as explains Nick Wride, Director of Alternative Assets of JLL, "in 2018 we will not see again the sale of large portfolios as it happened in 2017, but it will continue to be a very active market, particularly focused on the purchase of land for the development of new residences and also in terms of renewal and changes in use".