Atir Hospitality has closed a €28 million financing with Banco Santander to develop a student residence in the centre of Barcelona. The transaction was advised by CBRE's Debt & Structured Finance practice.
The project will represent Atir Hospitality's entry into the Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) segment and will be located in the old quarter of the city. The asset will comprise 235 single rooms and communal areas and will be managed by Yugo. The design has been commissioned to the architectural firm Batlle i Roig and the building is expected to obtain BREEAM Very Good certification.
According to Nacho Meylán, senior director of Debt & Structured Finance at CBRE, "this transaction confirms the strong investor and financier appetite for the student residence sector, where there is a growing unmet demand. In this context of a strong mismatch between supply and demand, we see that there is a lot of interest from banks in financing projects in major cities. The closing of the transaction is a sign of the collaboration between the CBRE team and the parties involved to secure the best financing conditions".
According to CBRE data, the demand for student accommodation in Spain continues to grow at a faster rate than supply, with an estimated shortfall of more than 460,000 beds. The bed supply rate stands at 7%, compared to the European average of 18%. Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia account for 50% of the potential demand for student residence accommodation.
In 2024, investment in this segment exceeded 985 million euros at national level, the second highest volume recorded to date. In Catalonia, investment amounted to 276 million, representing 28% of the total. In the first quarter of 2025, investment in student residences reached 440 million euros, representing 39% of the total invested in assets in the Living segment between January and March.
Barcelona currently has around 17,000 operational beds in halls of residence, to which a further 4,400 are expected to be added in the coming years. According to CBRE, this figure is still insufficient to meet the growing demand for accommodation from university students.
