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Investing in non-traditional real estate with attractive, steady and defensible demand drivers

The cycle-resilient user demand for Harrison Street’s target real estate sectors are derived from demographic trends: an aging population that continues to grow and live longer; increasing college enrollments; and a more mobile population. Additionally, these highly-fragmented asset classes generally have short-term leases, which the firm believes can be beneficial in inflationary environments, allowing rents to re-price more frequently.

Long-tenured investor in alternative real estate sectors across the risk/return spectrum

US Opportunistic Fund Series
Launched in 2006, the opportunistic fund series has completed over $22 billion of gross investments (757 assets) since inception and disposed of over 445 properties with a gross cost of approximately $9 billion. The fund series’ investment focus is to create a diversified portfolio of assets in demographic-driven real estate. The funds seek to create value through the acquisition, development, redevelopment and/or repositioning of assets in the target sectors in partnership with strong operating partners.

The fund series has invested in approximately 109,000 student housing beds, approximately 28,000 senior housing units, about 9.0 million square feet of medical office space, approximately 2.0 million square feet of life sciences and over 115,000 storage units. The following provides a summary of the fund series: 

FundVintage YearFund StatusFund Size
Fund I2006Fully liquidated$208 million
Fund II2008Fully liquidated$432 million
Fund III2010Fully liquidated$596 million
Fund IV2013Disposition phase$750 million
Fund V2014Disposition phase$850 million
Fund VI2016Value creation phase$950 million
Fund VII2018Value creation phase$1.3 billion
Fund VIII2020Investment period$2.0 billion

US Core Fund
Launched in 2011, Harrison Street’s Core Fund was created to provide investment in stabilized, cash-flow producing real estate with demographic-driven demand. The fund invests in student housing, both on and off campus, and other education-related real estate investments; senior housing including independent living, assisted living and memory care communities; medical office buildings and other healthcare-related real estate investments; life science buildings and storage properties.

Since its inception, the fund has consistently produced an attractive distribution yield. The fund is valued over $11 billion and consists of a diversified portfolio of 350 properties.

European Opportunistic Fund Series

Harrison Street has invested over €3.6 billion in approximately 18,000 student housing beds, over 2,600 specialty residential units and 2.1 million square feet of life sciences throughout Europe. The following provides a summary of the fund series:

FundVintage YearFund StatusFund Size
Fund I2015Disposition phase€235 million
Fund II2018Value creation phase€500 million

Canada Alternative Fund

Launched in August 2021, Harrison Street’s alternative real estate open-end fund will provide investment in stabilized, cash-flow producing real estate with demographic-driven demand across Canada. The fund will invest in high-quality senior living, student housing, medical office, life sciences, storage and digital real estate assets. The fund has closed three seed investments including: senior housing communities in the greater Toronto area, a senior housing community in downtown Ottawa and a rental property purpose-built for students and young professionals in Calgary’s University District.

“Identifying investment opportunities at the early stage of a trend is what we do best. We pride ourselves on being pioneers in demographic-driven, needs-based real estate in the US and approach the expansion of our European business with the same first-mover mindset. We continually push ourselves to innovate and create differentiated investment solutions to help our clients achieve their goals.”

Rob Mathias, HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL