Student housing still core to strategy, Mapletree says after fund wind-down

[SINGAPORE] The student housing sector continues to be core to Mapletree Investments’ strategy, a spokesperson said, despite the winding down of a billion-dollar global fund that held US and UK accommodation assets.

News of the Mapletree Global Student Accommodation Private Trust’s (MGSA) underperformance came to light last week, when it emerged that Mapletree was winding down the fund that, at inception in 2017, had assets of US$1.3 billion.

Its net internal rate of return by the end of last year was just 1.1 per cent, short of its initial target of 12 per cent, according to a Bloomberg report.