Hill House, one of the properties acquired by Civitas

Demand for specialist education property continues to increase, with Civitas Investment Management, the UK’s largest provider of community facilities, investing £113m worth of equity in the second half of 2023.

With £3.5bn of assets under advisory, the company has announced that, following £73m of acquisitions in December, it deployed a total of £113m of equity in the second half of 2023.

Representing a continuation on the first half of last year, the activity furthered Civitas’ commitment to the high growth and specialist sector, which offers secure, long-income real estate or infrastructure characteristics.

The proceeds from the disposals will enable a mix of capital recycling into new development, business growth, and reduction of indebtedness.

The rental income is 100% government backed and benefits from annual indexation.

The investments included special educational needs (SEN) schools, acquired via sale and leaseback, providing specialist education support for children between the ages of five and 18.

Civitas currently manages a £3.5bn portfolio of over 1,285 specialist healthcare and education assets in the UK and Sweden, with the capacity to provide community-based living and specialist education to over 9,360 individuals.

Andrew Dawber, group director, said: “Against a backdrop of generally-volatile markets and low transaction volumes across most real estate classes, Civitas has continued to drive forward its investment programmes on behalf of institutional clients, in an asset class that demonstrates strong social and environmental credentials, and which benefits from indexation and visible long-term income.

“Working closely with specialist local developers and with local authority commissioners, Civitas seeks to deliver designated properties that meet specific identified needs within each local authority area.

“And our pipeline of projects remains strong as we enter 2024 and this reflects the evidence on the ground of increasing need for high-quality, community-based facilities with an emphasis on working closely with local commissioning services and with leading care providers, housing managers, and specialist developers.”