It was announced this week that Round Hill Capital has opened a new office in at 12 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. Round Hill has been evaluating the Irish real estate market for several years and has over €1 billion of dedicated capital to deploy into the local Build to Rent and Purpose-Built Student Accommodation sectors.
The Group has acquired, built and managed over 110,000 residential and student housing beds in recent years and currently operates circa 65,000 accommodation beds in eight European countries.
Round Hill’s approach incorporates multiple strategies, such as acquiring existing assets, developing new purpose-built assets, forward-purchasing assets and repositioning assets.
Round Hill is currently funding a pipeline of over 7,000 student accommodation beds across the UK, Ireland and Continental Europe. The Group is targeting to secure 20,000 student beds in these markets by 2020. Round Hill currently has 333,875 sq m of residential and commercial projects under construction across Europe.
Round Hill Capital has appointed John Vaudin as Managing Director of the Irish operation. John will lead the expansion of Round Hill Capital’s business in Ireland with responsibility for spearheading the Group’s investment, development and operational strategy, helping to deliver on the Group’s ambitions across Ireland.
Speaking this week, Founder and CEO of Round Hill Capital, Michael Bickford said, "Consistent with many European countries, the Irish student and residential housing markets suffer from structural supply/demand imbalances. Round Hill has a proven 15-year track record of investing into such markets, where we identify opportunities that will deliver sustainable housing, whilst creating long term jobs. We look forward to building a substantial student and residential platform in Ireland in a responsible manner."
He added, "I am delighted to welcome John to the Round Hill team. I am confident that his deep industry knowledge, expertise, networks and ability to deliver will prove invaluable as we continue to grow Round Hill’s business in Ireland and wider Europe."
Source: www.businessworld.ie