The path to growth

International Campus AG: On the path to growth! 

Dear Readers, 

We hope you had a good start to the New Year and were able to end 2014 on a relaxing note. The last year was a very successful year for Inter­na­tional Campus AG. We opened two new student residences, THE FIZZ+ Freiburg and THE FIZZ Berlin, and won three new attrac­tive projects in Aachen, Freiburg II and in Co-logne for THE FIZZ Basic. With the Dutch market leader DUWO Stichting as the opera­ting partner, we invest with IC Nether­lands B.V. into student accom­mo­da­tions in the Nether­lands. 

With the founding of “Consul­ting Cum Laude” we bridged the gap between our core business, student accom­mo­da­tion, and hybrid advisory / market research services. Like the “Star Alli-ance” in the airline industry, “Network Cum Laude” is an interna-tional coope­ra­tion platform of leading student housing opera­tors and univer­si­ties. Newly we expanded our manage-ment team with the UK student housing expert James Granger who will oversee opera­tions. 

The course is set for growth in 2015. We will open three new student residences in 2015 alone, THE FIZZ Frank­furt I, THE FIZZ Hannover and THE FIZZ Darmstadt, and manage around ten locations with more than 3,000 apart­ments. Further­more our pipeline includes 20 new THE FIZZ locations with around 8,000 apart­ments. Our main objec­tive in future: Appealing resi-dential propo­sals for the students and attrac­tive returns for our inves­tors. 

A successful year 2015, 

Horst Lieder 

CEO Inter­na­tional Campus AG

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International Campus: our student residences 

Residences in opera­tion 

THE FIZZ Bremen on the Univer­sity of Bremen campus was Interna-tional Campus AG’s first student residence in Germany. It opened around two years ago and com-prises more than 336 high-quality single and double room apart-ments with a kitchenette and a shower bath. The three-part build-ing complex has a concierge ser-vice, two seminar rooms and a communal kitchen. 

In October 2014, THE FIZZ Berlin opened in very central Berlin-Mitte. The student residence was developed in a 50:50 joint venture with the group Gädeke & Sons. The 212 apart­ments have 21 square metres on average and a bathroom and kitchenette. The special features of the complex next to the Spree river include a lounge in the laundry room and spacious cooking areas. 

THE FIZZ+ Freiburg opened in au-tumn last year. The residence in the popular Zähringen district of Freiburg is built accor­ding to the low-energy-standard “Freiburger Effizi­enz­haus 60” and comprises a total of 149 high-quality single and two-room apart­ments. They were sold to private inves­tors and the users and are excep­tio­nally large at 24 to 38 square metres. 

Projects in comple­tion 

In 2015, Inter­na­tional Campus AG will open three new student resi-dences. THE FIZZ Frank­furt I in Gal-lus will be the first. All 382 high-quality apart­ments in the convert-ed office building are fully fur-nished with a desk, bed, cupboards and a kitchenette.

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THE FIZZ Hannover with 303 sin-gle and two-room apart­ments in Hanover´s central Nordstadt dis-trict will be completed by mid-2015. The fully furnished apart-ments will have around 22 square metres on average and a concierge service will ensure the comfort and safety of the students – as in all THE FIZZ resi-dences. 

THE FIZZ Darmstadt is due to be completed at the end of 2015. The property in the city centre consists of both new and old buildings total­ling some 340 apart­ments with an average of 21 square metres. 

Planned residences 

In addition to the student resi-dences which are already in op-eration, there are also several planned student housing pro-jects: in Hamburg and Aachen, and additional proper­ties in Frank­furt, Freiburg and – the first THE FIZZ Basic – in Cologne. THE FIZZ Basic is a new sub-brand of Inter­na­tional Campus that combines an attrac­tive stu-dent accom­mo­da­tion with lower rental prices. The apart­ments are a bit smaller, fully furnished and coming with a modern bath-room. An own kitchenette is not part of the apart­ment – instead of that you can find generous communal kitchens with inte-grated lounges on each floor. 

Our pipeline 

Currently we are also in negotia-tions for new student residences in every important German uni-versity city: e.g. Aachen, Berlin, Bonn, Frank­furt, Hamburg, Co-logne, Mainz and Munich. The follo­wing criteria are essen­tial: proxi­mity to the univer­sity and to the city centre, the reputa­tion of the univer­sity and the situa-tion at the residen­tial market.

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In Focus: Frankfurt am Main 

Frank­furt am Main, the city of high-rise buildings, short dis-tances – and plenty of students. Last 2014/15 winter semester, more than 60,000 students were enrolled at the Goethe Univer­sity, Frank­furt School of Finance and other univer­si­ties. The Studen­ten­werk Frank­furt am Main offers just 2,400 beds in 18 diffe­rent locations. Halls of residences funded by the church or other chari­table organisa-tions account for another 3,000 places and there are around 1,000 private apart­ments in the city. The Frank­furt Studenten-werk provides accom­mo­da­tion for just over 3 percent of the student popula­tion. 

Positive outlook 

Over the last five years, average rents increased by around 25 percent in Frank­furt. In 2014, the metro­polis crossed the thres­hold of 700,000 inhabit-ants – and the popula­tion is ex-pected to grow to up to 735,000 by 2030. Accor­ding to the City Invest­ment Index (CIII) of the inter­na­tional consul­ting compa-ny JLL, Frank­furt ranks no. 8 in the world in terms of size and attrac­ti­ve­ness. In 2012, more than 1.5 million people visited the trade fairs in Frank­furt. Even though around 22,000 new apart­ments were built between 2003 and 2012 and residen­tial space was approved in 2014 to an extent not seen in 50 years, the housing market is likely to remain diffi­cult for years to come. However, the high vacan-cy rate of almost 10 percent for office buildings bears enormous poten­tial in terms of conver­sion into student accom­mo­da­tion.

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Three questions for Roman Diehl about Network Cum Laude: 

What is the objec­tive of the network? 

Inter­na­tional Campus estab-lished the coope­ra­tion platform “Network Cum Laude” with the partner DUWO, the Dutch mar-ket leader that manages more than 27,000 student rooms. The objec­tive of NCL is to promote and expand residen­tial and ser-vice propo­sals for inter­na­tional students – throug­hout Europe. 

What do the partners gain by this? 

The coope­ra­tion platform offers partners like leading student residence and univer­sity opera-tors and service provi­ders the oppor­tu­nity to bundle their strengths and services for the students‘ benefit. The key ad-vantages are e.g. improved ca-pacity utili­sa­tion at the respec­tive locations, economi-cally optimised processes, a tar-get-oriented market approach, greater inter­na­tional mobility and a more inten­sive exchange of knowledge at all opera­ting and strategic levels. This inevi-tably improves access to inves-tors. 

And the plans of Network Cum Laude for the future? 

We want to gradu­ally develop NCL into an online market­place for the “student lifecycle” and are already in advanced negoti-ations with major national play-ers in diffe­rent important count­ries. Higher educa­tion is an exciting inter­na­tional market and we are looking forward to the upcoming discus­sions!

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News

2.7 million students 

At the end of 2014, the Federal Statis­tical Office (Statis­ti­sches Bundesamt) announced that al-most 2.7 million students were enrolled in German univer­si­ties in the 2014/2015 winter semes-ter. The ratio of new students was 57.3 percent, of which 50.1 percent were women. 

Frequent reloca­tions 

On behalf of EY (formerly Ernst & Young), market research insti­tu­tion Research Now sur-veyed 4,300 students on their future place of work. In the old federal states, 37 percent of those surveyed expected to re-locate after comple­ting their studies and in the new states the figure was 40 percent. Students in Bavaria, Baden-Württem­berg and North Rhine-Westphalia had the highest career expec­ta­tions. 

Bavaria increases grants 

The federal state Bavaria again increased its finan­cial support for student accom­mo­da­tion. The maximum finan­cing amount per student apart­ment is EUR 32,000.

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Excel­lent prospects for 

student accom­mo­da­tion 

In a recent study, bulwi­en­gesa rated 68 German cities with more than 7,000 students in terms of profi­ta­bi­lity. Accor­ding to the study, at least 30 universi-ty cities have an attrac­tive risk return profile and good invest-ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Munich comes in at number 1, followed by Cologne, Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hannover and Bonn. The top 30 also includes Darmstadt, Hamburg, Bremen, Ulm, Karls-ruhe, Freiburg, Konstanz and Aa-chen. 

28,000 more student 

apart­ments needed in NL 

Accor­ding to estimates, an addi-tional 28,000 student apart-ments will be needed in the Nether­lands by 2020. In the North Sea coast region, around 660,000 students are regis­tered at 13 state univer­si­ties and 38 technical univer­si­ties (as at the end of 2012). There are a total of 3.2 million rental apart­ments in the Nether­lands.

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500,000 more inhabi­tants 

Between 2000 and 2014, around half a million people in Germany moved to the cities Hamburg, Munich, Frank­furt, Stutt­gart and Berlin. 

Positive develo­p­ment in 

regional real estate 

In a study for Postbank, the de-velop­ment in real estate prices until 2015 was examined in all 402 German districts and urban districts. In most regions, the condi­tions for buying houses and apart­ments are favourable. Po-tential price increases are ex-pected in nine districts in Bavaria and Baden-Württem­berg, espe-cially in Munich and the sur-rounding area. The forecasts for Münster, Dresden, Jena and Ber-lin are also positive. 

“Highly attrac­tive” market 

The current EY Real Estate trend barometer shows that 45 percent of the real estate inves­tors sur-veyed regarded Germany as “highly attrac­tive”. One of the main reasons was the higher prices for residen­tial real estate.