國際學生涌入 推高倫敦房地產市場

LONDON — Joyce Ge, a Student from China who is studying business management at King’s College, pays 880 pounds a month, or $1,310, to live in a pint-size, stylish studio apartment in the far reaches of east London, in a building with roof decks gazing toward the distant city skyline. Her rent covers water and electricity, as well as Wi-Fi and cleaning of common spaces every two weeks.

倫敦——來自中國的留學生喬伊斯·葛(Joyce Ge)如今正在倫敦國王學院(King’s College)讀工商管理專業，她租住的單間很時尚，位於倫敦東區的偏遠地帶，每月租金880英鎊（約合1310美元，8600元人民幣），站在公寓樓頂的天台上，還可以看到遠處倫敦的身影。喬伊斯的房租包含了水電費，Wi-Fi費和兩週一次的公用空間清潔費。

Many investors are betting that there will be a lot more Joyce Ges arriving in the coming years.

很多投資者打賭在接下來的幾年裏會有更多像喬伊斯·葛這樣的人來到倫敦。

Their bet is a simple one: As students from the world’s growing middle and upper classes flock to London for higher education, the stark supply-demand imbalance in student housing will grow.

他們的推測很簡單：日漸興起的全球中高產階級家庭的學生，爲了接受高等教育紛紛涌入倫敦，這就加劇了學生公寓的供需不平衡。

International college students are pouring into London, deepening an extensive housing shortage. The result is that student housing is becoming another red-hot corner of the city’s property market. That has tempted international pension funds, major private equity players and real estate giants to build up or sell off large portfolios of buildings for handsome profits. The values of many of these portfolios are rising (and consequently, yields are falling) as a result of the intense investor interest.

國際大學生涌入倫敦加劇了大範圍的房屋短缺，而學生公寓也因此成爲了倫敦房地產市場的另一塊香餑餑。這促使外國養老基金、各大私募股權投資公司和房地產巨頭，囤積或拋售大量樓宇以賺取可觀的利潤。雖然很多樓宇的價值正在攀升，但因爲投資者投資意願高漲，收益率出現了下降。

About £3.5 billion worth of British student housing deals have been done so far in 2015, according to the real estate consulting firm JLL. That’s more than double the value of deals completed in 2014.

據房地產諮詢公司仲量聯行(Jones Lang LaSalle)透露，到目前爲止，2015年英國學生公寓成交額達35億英鎊左右，是2014全年成交額的兩倍多。

“The volume has increased dramatically, and the values per bed have risen significantly,” said Philip Hillman, the head of student housing and higher education at JLL.

仲量聯行負責學生公寓和高等教育的主管菲利普·希爾曼(Philip Hillman)表示，“成交量急劇增加，每張牀位的價值也顯著提高。”

Among the notable transactions are the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board’s £1.1 billion purchase of Liberty Living, previously owned by retail investors, and the Carlyle Group’s sale of its Pure portfolio of student housing to LetterOne, a group of Russian investors, for £535 million.

在衆多引人注目的交易中，加拿大退休金計劃投資委員會(Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board)以11億英鎊購得學生公寓Liberty Living，該公寓此前由零售投資商持有。此外，俄羅斯集團LetterOne以5.35億英鎊從凱雷集團(Carlyle Group)收購了學生公寓Pure Student Living。

Greystar Real Estate Partners, which is based in the United States, has completed seven deals, including buying Nido, a portfolio of student housing, for £600 million. (Blackstone sold that same portfolio to Round Hill Capital in 2012 for £415 million.)

總部在美國的灰星房地產合夥公司(Greystar Real Estate Partners)完成了七筆交易，其中包括以6億英鎊購得學生公寓項目Nido。黑石集團(Blackstone)在2012年以4.15億英鎊的價格，將Nido項目出售給了房地產投資公司Round Hill Capital。

“The pool of international buyers is expanding because the returns are attractive, the cash flows are attractive and there are platforms trading rather than individual assets,” said Brett Lashley, a managing director at Greystar who is based in London.

“因爲回報可觀、現金流充足，還有是平臺交易，而非買賣單個資產，所以國際買家的正不斷增多，”灰星公司常駐倫敦的董事總經理佈雷特·拉什利(Brett Lashley)說道。

Previously, universities provided housing to students, or students teamed up to rent a house together. The university housing was suitably shabby and “customer service was not a concept here,” said one international investor.

過去或是大學向學生提供宿舍，或是學生組團租房。大學的宿舍相當破舊，而且“完全沒有客戶服務這個概念”，一位國際投資者說道。

But in the 1990s, the private sector jumped in to fill the gaping hole universities could not cover. Companies that developed properties and then managed them sprouted, and grew. Some took on too much debt.

但在上世紀90年代，私營部門開始填補大學無法填補的這個缺口。開發地產項目，隨後再進行管理的公司涌現出來，並且蓬勃發展，其中一些公司不惜大量舉債。

During the financial crisis, private equity players like Blackstone and Carlyle stepped in to scoop up these properties, building up portfolios of student housing and creating the scale the market lacked to make it attractive for institutional investors.

在金融危機期間，像黑石和凱雷這樣的私募股權公司開始涉足，大舉購入這些房產，囤積了大量的學生公寓資產，創造出市場上前所未有的規模，從而吸引機構投資者。

Britain has 1.8 million full-time students, foreign and domestic combined. But to illustrate the shortage, only about 525,000 purpose-built student housing beds are available. These can be rooms to rent, a combination of what universities can offer and what the private sector leases — either directly to students or via an agreement with the higher education institutions. About 220,000 of those beds are commercial properties, according to JLL.

英國共有180萬名全日制學生，包括外國留學生和本地學生。但是專門爲學生提供的住宿設施中，僅有52.5萬張牀位，由此可見牀位的短缺。出租的房屋包括大學提供的宿舍和私營部門出租的房屋——私營部門或是直接向學生出租，或是與高校簽訂協議。據仲量聯行透露，大約有22萬張牀位屬商業地產。

Rents have been rising 3 percent to 4 percent a year with occupancy rates at 97 percent to 99 percent. Even after significantly steeper university fees were introduced in 2012, the market still grew. Intake for the 2014-15 school year hit a new peak, with 512,000 students matriculating.

房租每年上漲3%到4%，但是入住率卻高達97%到99%。即使在2012大學學費顯著提高以後，市場規模依舊擴大了。2014至2015學年的入學率創新高，入學新生人數達51.2萬名。

Investors say growth is robust and nearly recession-proof. At the higher rent levels, many students are willing to pay whatever the cost.

投資者表示市場增長強勁並且沒有衰退的跡象。雖然房租提高了，但是很多學生還是願意租，不管要花多少錢。

“A lot of investors want to invest where the main driver is not the strength of the economy but more demographics,” said Mr. Hillman of JLL, who has been involved in student housing for 25 years, giving him a window into how substantially the market has changed.

“很多投資者想要進行投資，並不是因爲經濟走強，更多的是受人口因素驅動，”任職於仲量聯行的希爾曼說道。他在學生公寓領域有着25年的工作經驗，因此見證了市場發生的巨大變化。

Crucial to growth in the sector, especially at the high end, where investors like Greystar are focusing, is the flood of international students. Of the 1.3 million students who were looking for a place to live in the 2013-14 school year, 72 percent were British, 7.5 percent were from the European Union and 20 percent were from other countries, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

這個領域增長的關鍵，尤其是像灰星公司這樣的投資者關注的領域內的高端，在於國際學生的涌入。高等教育統計局(Higher Education Statistics Agency)的數據顯示，在2013至2014學年尋找住所的130萬名學生當中，72%是英國人、7.5%來自歐盟，還有20%來自其他國家。

The five-year growth rate of international students has been 20.3 percent, compared with 8.3 percent for European Union students and only about a 1 percent increase for the domestic market. The government’s Department of Business, Innovation & Skills predicted in 2013 that international students in higher education would rise 15 percent to 20 percent over the next five years. In 2013, the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said the government would eliminate the cap on the number of students a university could accept in 2015, also adding to the increase.

這五年的國際學生增長率是20.3%，相比之下，歐盟學生的增長率爲8.3%，而國內市場的增長只有大約1%。英國政府的商務、創新和技能部(Department of Business, Innovation & Skills)在2013年預測，接受高等教育的國際學生，將會在未來五年中增長15%到20%。2013年，財政大臣喬治·奧斯本(George Osborne)曾說，政府將會在2015年取消大學招生名額的上限，這也促進了上述增長。

Universities are eager to attract foreign students because they pay more in fees. And student accommodation providers say they pay a lot more for their housing, too. Another appeal for investors is that the student populations move or graduate almost every year, allowing owners to increase rents.

大學渴望吸引外國學生，因爲他們支付的費用更高。學生住宿提供者說，他們同時也會爲住宿花更多錢。對投資者來講，另一個吸引人的地方是，學生幾乎每年都搬家或者畢業，這樣一來房東就可以提高房租了。

“Rather than provide a room and a bed, we are providing a consumer experience,” said James Pullan, head of student property at Knight Frank, another large London real estate group. “It’s all about the international students.”

“我們不是提供一間屋子和一張牀，而是在提供一種消費體驗，”詹姆斯·普蘭(James Pullan)說。“都是爲了國際學生。”普蘭是倫敦另一家大型地產集團萊坊(Knight Frank)的學生地產項目負責人。

Wi-Fi, in particular, is a major priority in amenities. “It’s like having electricity,” Mr. Lashley said.

具體而言，Wi-Fi就是最重要的設施之一。“就像必須有電一樣，”拉什利說。

British students are disquieted by the trend. “All the new builds are high-end and expensive and marketed to international students,” said Colum McGuire, vice president for welfare for the National Union of Students. “Other students have to scrape to live in them.” He knows: Though he grew up in London, he had to leave to attend college outside the city because of the cost of housing.

英國學生對這種趨勢表示擔心。“所有的新建築都是高端昂貴並且面向國際學生的，”全國學生聯合會(National Union of Students)負責福利的副主席科勒姆·麥圭爾(Colum McGuire)說。“其他學生要節衣縮食才能住進去。”他明白這種處境，儘管他在倫敦長大，但因爲房租的緣故，不得不去倫敦以外上大學。

The National Union of Students measures affordability every few years. In its last survey, it found that the cost had more than doubled in the last decade. “That is in no way in correlation to the cost of living or inflation,” Mr. McGuire said.

全國學生聯合會每隔幾年都會調查價格水平。上一次調查顯示，花費在過去10年中增長了超過一倍。“絕對和生活成本或是通脹無關，”麥圭爾說。

Those seeking to make money in this market, however, argue that they are bringing more choice and quality to the market.

然而，那些想要在這個市場中賺錢的人主張，他們是在給市場提供更多選擇和更高的品質。

“It’s extremely positive to have high-quality investors putting their money in this sector,” said Richard Simpson, head of property for the Unite Group, the largest provider of student accommodations in Britain. “It will drive standards up,” he said, and create better housing stock. (Unite has “refreshed” all of its buildings in the last 12 months.)

“有高品質的投資者在這個領域投資是極其正面的事，”英國最大的學生住宿提供商聯合集團(Unite Group)的地產主管理查德·辛普森(Richard Simpson)說。“那會把標準提高，”他說，而且還能提高市場上現有房產的質量。（聯合集團在過去12個月裏“翻新”了旗下的所有房屋。）

As the demand for investments in student housing rises, yields are coming down. Yields have dropped sharply, to about 5 percent in central London from 6.25 percent a year ago.

隨着投資學生公寓項目的需求出現增長，收益率正在下降。倫敦市中心這種投資收益率從一年前的6.25%大幅下滑到了5%。

But the sector of privately financed student housing has been marred by some well-publicized failures. Opal, a major student housing company, went bankrupt in 2013, and two other large student housing fund companies were forced to suspend redemptions when they could not sell property to meet the demands.

私人投資學生公寓這一領域，也受到了一些廣爲人知的失敗案例的影響。大型學生公寓公司Opal在2013年破產，而另外兩家學生公寓基金公司，由於無法出售足夠的房屋來滿足投資者的要求，於是被迫停止贖回。

Yet the Opal bankruptcy proved to be a tipping point.

然而Opal的破產被證明是一個轉折點。

Greystar started to build scale, teaming up with Goldman Sachs to complete one £300 million deal. Investors from the United States, Russia and the Middle East started pouring in. British institutions, recently surveyed by JLL, want to increase their allocation to the sector. “It’s a global asset class,” Mr. Hillman said. “It’s not a quirky British thing.”

灰星開始擴大規模，與高盛(Goldman Sachs)合作來完成一筆3億英鎊的交易。來自美國、俄羅斯和中東的投資者開始涌入。仲量聯行的調查顯示，英國的投資機構想要增加在這一領域的份額。“那是一個全球性的資產類別，”希爾曼說。“不是一個古怪的英國玩意兒。”

If Ms. Ge of King’s College is any indication, the global investors may have to step up their game. She’s moving from her tiny studio next year to her own apartment, even though she will still be a student. “It’s too expensive for what you get,” she said, as she loaded her laundry into smart-card-operated machines. “And there are too many rules.”

如果國王學院的喬伊斯·葛的情況彰顯了某種跡象，全球投資者或許勢必會加大投資。她明年將從狹小的單間搬到自己的公寓裏，儘管她依然還是學生身份。“相比得到的東西，這裏太貴了，”她在把衣物放進智能卡操作的洗衣機裏時說。“而且這裏規矩太多了。”