Senior project financing for BaseCamp in Göttingen

BaseCamp Göttingen

The property

BaseCamp Student is a vertically integrated developer, operator and investment manager with considerable expertise in the area of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and a subsidiary company of the BaseCamp group. The BaseCamp group was founded in 2015 to create community-oriented social infrastructure for the student sector in north and central Europe and has adopted a long-term approach to the construction, operation and holding of assets. BaseCamp’s target markets include Germany, Poland and the Nordic countries with a total student population of 5.9 million in around 600 universities and colleges. In Germany, BaseCamp already operates locations in Berlin, Leipzig and Potsdam.

The project development in Göttingen comprises a complex of three buildings which are used exclusively as student apartments with common areas, located within walking distance of Göttingen city centre. Upon completion, the complex will comprise some 600 apartments.

Facts & figures

Property name BaseCamp Göttingen
Address Gothaer Platz 2 – 8 in 37083 Göttingen
Submarket Lohberg
Asset class Student accommodation
Year of construction 2021 – 2022
Lettable area 23,500 sqm
Owner European Student Housing Fund I
Activities Project financing: sourcing & execution
Mandate period 2020 – 2021

The challenge

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, BaseCamp’s pan-European properties were fully occupied throughout. However, the procurement of tailored construction progress-based financing was a significant challenge. Whilst the European pandemic reached its high point in November 2020 with a 5-month lockdown, many commercial and mortgage banks tended to pull away from any engagement in the financing of commercially-operated residential property before looking at BaseCamp’s business model in any detail.
The tendering process for the financing resulted in a limited number of offers from relevant financing partners, whose proposals matched BaseCamp’s conditional and structural expectations.

The tools

Business Plan

Financing Memorandum

The result

Building Value: The positive results from Real Estate Finance for BaseCamp

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    • Successful conclusion of senior construction progress-based financing with a major German bank
    • Attractive financing conditions with a fixed interest rate
    • Optimised financing structure with flexible drawdown facility based on individual construction phasing