Nuveen Real Estate has acquired a UK self-storage portfolio from Easistore, on behalf of its European value-add strategy, for an undisclosed price.
The portfolio comprises four assets located in Crawley, Edenbridge, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, totalling circa 240,000 sq ft.
Nuveen has entered into a joint venture partnership with self-storage operator Storage King, part of the specialist Stor-Age self-storage property fund, which has taken a minority stake in the JV and contributed 10% of the equity capital. The portfolio will be branded and managed by Storage King under its third-party management platform Management 1st
Nuveen said it intended to explore a reconfiguration opportunity at the Edenbridge site, with extensions added at the Crawley and Maidstone sites.
David Pearce, fund manager, real estate, Europe at Nuveen, said: “Over the last few months we have worked closely with our joint-venture partner, Stor-Age, to enter the UK self-storage market and this acquisition provides an excellent seed portfolio. Well-located assets near to densely populated residential areas, have demonstrated a consistent level of rental growth in recent years and we have identified an opportunity to be an early mover in this sector, which offers substantial scalability potential in the UK.
“Our focus is now on undertaking our business plan including rebranding the properties, leasing of the remaining vacant space, the potential for development and extension at some of the assets and, if the right opportunities arise, further growing our self-storage portfolio.”
Jasper Gilbey, head of housing and alternatives, real estate, Europe at Nuveen added: “Self-storage is one of our key conviction plays in Europe given the sectors proven resilience, strong demographic tailwinds and low provision rates as a basis for growth. We are delighted to build on the success of our Green Storage platform in Sweden with the acquisition of the Easistore platform in the UK for our European value-add strategy. We look forward to growing the platform in partnership with our operator, Storage King.”
The vendor was advised by Levy Real Estate.
