Henderson Global Investors Purchases Sacramento M-F Complex

Taking advantage of a traditionally underserved student housing market, independent investment manager Henderson Global Investors, based in Chicago, has acquired The Verge Apartments in Sacramento for $36 million.The 792-bed community (pictured) serves the Cal State-Sacramento student housing market. The acquisition is the initial investment by a joint venture between Henderson and Valeo University Communities, Inc. The venture was formed through Henderson’s Manager of Partners Program. Student housing continues to be an outstanding portfolio diversifier because its value isn’t correlated to the rest of the real estate industry, a Henderson spokesman said. Additionally, Sacramento’s weakened housing market is forecast to prop up renter demand in 2008, though mounting job losses and competition from shadow stock will result in a modest rise in marketwide vacancy, according to industry reports for the second quarter 2008 for the Sacramento Metro Area.With the region’s high rate of foreclosures diminishing many residents’ creditworthiness, renter demand for lower-tier units has accelerated, contributing to vacancy declines in Class B/C apartments. This trend is forecast to persist in the coming quarters as firms further streamline labor forces and ARMs continue to reset, the report stated. Class A units, meanwhile, are competing with reverted condos and single-family residences entering the rental market. Fortunately, construction is set to slow to the lowest rate in more than a decade, which should temper much of the supply-side pressure, according to the Marcus & Millichap report stated.Valeo is a full service real estate and development company based in Lake Forest, California that specializes in the development and management of faculty and student housing throughout the Western US. On Sept. 2, Henderson Global Investors announced the launch of the Henderson Industries of the Future Fund. The fund seeks to invest in companies that contribute to an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible global economy on the premise that over the coming years, sustainable development will be a critical success factor and that social or environmental leaders will be most likely to harness the rewards of early adaptation to sustainability’s challenges. The fund’s strategy will mirror that of a Henderson fund available in the UK since 1995, run by the same portfolio management team.