Private equity backing for student accommodation advertising platform

Private equity investor LDC has made a minority investment in student accommodation advertising platform UniHomes as the business continues its expansion across the UK.

Based in Sheffield and operating in 41 locations nationwide, UniHomes helps students find their perfect university ‘home from home’, by connecting them with thousands of student properties offering all-inclusive living.

Letting agents are able to integrate the UniHomes platform with their back-office systems and generate enquiries to fill their student accommodation portfolios.

Founded in 2015 by Phil Greaves, Bradley Cox and Luca Mori, UniHomes will use LDC’s investment to accelerate its regional growth ambitions and further develop the platform and service provision for both its student and letting agent customers.

The investment was led by Dan Smith, partner and head of Yorkshire at LDC, investment director James Marshall and investment manager Ana-Maria Garaba.

Greaves said: “We’re incredibly proud of the business we’ve built over the past eight years, having established ourselves as part of the fabric of the student accommodation market. The team at LDC really understood our purpose, our model and its potential, and so stood out as the ideal investment partner to work alongside us as we accelerate growth and look to support and enhance the UniHomes experience for even more letting agents and students across the UK.”

Smith added: “The UniHomes journey so far has been impressive, and the founders have achieved remarkable scale in just a few years. We are pleased to support the team as they drive further investment into the technology platform and lead the way in the all-inclusive student accommodation market, which is fast becoming the default model in the sector.”

LDC has an extensive track record in backing management teams in the property sector including iamproperty, Linley & Simpson, Lomond Group and Property Software Group.

UniHomes was advised by Kevan Shaw at Castle Square (Corporate Finance) and Freeths (Legal).

LDC was advised by EY (Corporate Finance, Financial & Tax Due Diligence), Womble Bond Dickinson (Legal), Graph Strategy (Commercial Due Diligence) and Catalysis (Management Due Diligence).

HSBC provided debt and working capital facilities to support the transaction.