Changing the
game since 2002
Our unrivalled track record of identifying opportunities, securing planning consents, financing and developing large and sometimes complex projects is well established. After years of operational experience, we also have a detailed understanding of the core skills required to assemble and run a successful student accommodation or living portfolio.
Our Track Record
Acquisition of assets across the UK in Joint Venture with Goldman Sachs
Generation, in a joint venture with Goldman Sachs Alternatives, acquire 2 buildings located in Bournemouth and Cardiff totalling 907 beds, and were part of AIG’s Halo portfolio, known as Project Tower. They are
the 430-bed Skyline development on Oxford Road in Bournemouth and the 477- bed Bridge Street Exchange scheme in Cardiff. Generation Partners will act as the asset and development manager and its operational management arm, Now Student Living will be retained as the Property Manager.
Acquisition of assets across the UK in partnership with PGIM
Generation Partners, in partnership with PGIM Real Estate, has acquired a stabilised purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) portfolio from Unite Group plc. The portfolio consists of six properties, totalling just under 3,000 beds, located in Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Liverpool, Nottingham and Sheffield. Generation Partners will act as the asset and development manager and its operational management arm, Now Student Living will be retained as the Property Manager.
Now Student Living platform is created
Now Student Living is the dedicated operating brand for Generation Partners allowing the business to undertake the full range of roles required to operate PBSA and mixed-use portfolios on behalf of investors in the sector. Primarily focussed on the operation of PBSA the platform also provides services across operational BTR and Co-Living assets.
Generation rebrand
Generation rebrands its corporate and visual identity to align with our business proposition to partner with investors to create spaces that provide unique living experiences; to look beyond bricks and mortar to observe and anticipate the trends, behaviours and needs that will shape the homes of tomorrow. Our experience adds value and maximises returns for our real estate investment partners.
Here! Students is created
Comprising of nine purpose-built assets across the UK and Republic of Ireland, Here! Student Living is launched with Ares to creating unique and engaging community environments reflective of students’ dynamic needs across some of the UK and Republic or Ireland’s most popular university cities.
ARK Co-living development, Wembley
This joint venture with re:shape and Crosstree Real Estate Partners reflects our continued mission to deliver alternative living solutions to cities in a way which is greener, smarter, considered, relevant, and flexible.
Acquisition of assets across the UK & ROI in Joint Venture with Ares
Generation worked in partnership with Ares to acquire 3 buildings in Cardiff, Exeter and Glasgow, totalling 1,663 beds. It has since grown via 2 further acquisitions in the UK (Birmingham and Egham, 789 beds), and an additional 3 properties in the Republic of Ireland, 2 of which are located in in Dublin and 1 in Galway, with a total of 664 beds.
Highlight Student Living launched in Dublin
With practical completion of Parkgate at 43 Montpelier Hill in Dublin 7, Generation’s joint venture with Hattington Capital comprised 576 operational beds in Central Dublin. The scheme provided a further 319 beds in addition to Thomas Street which opened in summer 2018. Both building were operated under the Highlight Student Living brand which was created to run the assets. These assets were sold in 2021.
Generation arrange Montreal Portfolio acquisition and establish UK Student Fund
Generation has secured the Montreal portfolio of assets through a forward funding with Watkins Jones. The portfolio provided 1,691 beds located good locations in Bath, Oxford, Sheffield, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Aberdeen. The properties were acquired by the Europa Generation Student Fund.
Generation enter Dublin Student Accommodation Market
Generation Estates worked with Hattington Capital Investments, providing purpose built student housing expertise and development management services to two projects in Dublin at 30- 36 Thomas Street, Dublin 8 and 43-53 Montpelier Hill, Dublin 7.
Pure Student Living, Aldgate opens
Generation completed the development at 60 Commercial Road in good time for the 2015/16 academic year. The building which provided 432 high quality student accommodation units was operated under the Pure Student Living brand. The project also included a new office building of 25,000 square feet at 122 Back Church Lane where Generation arranged to forward sale to Boultbee Brooks Real Estate.
Pure Student Living Sale
LetterOne purchased the Pure Student Living portfolio and operating business from The Carlyle Group and Generation. This premier purpose-built student accommodation business comprised 2,170 beds across five prime central London sites with an ideal geographical spread. Four of the assets located at Finsbury Park, Hammersmith, Bankside and City University are operational whilst the fifth facility at Whitechapel delivered the final 417 rooms when it completed. Carlyle entered the student accommodation market in 2010 after forming the joint venture with Generation.
Pure Student Living, City opens
Generation completed this mixed-use scheme that provided 805 student beds together with extensive amenity areas in two interconnecting blocks together with a Sport England specification sports centre of just over 30,000 sq. ft. and much needed additional teaching space of circa 19,000 sq. ft both for City University London. The student accommodation was operated as part of Carlyle/Generation’s Pure Student Living platform.
Pure Student Living, Bankside and Hammersmith opens
Two well located new student residences were opened by Pure Student Living, Generation’s joint venture with The Carlyle Group. The scheme in Bankside near Tate Modern and Hammersmith added a further 568 beds to the operational platform. Pure Bankside is very well located for Kings College Students and LSE while Pure Hammersmith, on the site of the former Hammersmith Palais, provides high quality studio accommodation in west London which is perfect for students studying at Imperial College.
Pure Student Living, Highbury opens
Pure Student Living, the joint venture between Generation and The Carlyle Group completed its first development of 400 student beds at 201 Isledon Road which is adjacent to Finsbury Park Station. The colourful building provides a mixture of en-suite study bedrooms and studios all with the benefit of generous amenity areas including games and study areas, a private gym and film screening room. The building is being operated by a dedicated in-house management team.
Nido Student Living Sale
Blackstone and Generation sold its Nido Student Accommodation assets and operational business to Round Hill Capital who syndicated the equity requirement amongst its investor base. The sale price was circa £415M. Nido was created by Blackstone and Generation after Generation led Blackstone into the UK student accommodation market. The portfolio comprises 2,521 beds across the three assets all of which were operational.
PBSA Platform joint venture with The Carlyle Group - Pure Student Living
Generation bring The Carlyle Group into the UK student housing market through a development led joint venture where Generation will originate and develop new student accommodation in London whilst also creating an in-house operational business to support the platform.
Blackstone, Grand Union Canal project
Generation undertake a final project with Blackstone having obtained planning consent on a site adjacent to the Grand Union Canal. Providing accommodation for 277 students together with 6,760 square feet of B1 space, the building opened in Summer 2011.
Nido Spitalfields development
Generation and Blackstone acquire 1.28-acre site near Liverpool Street Station with potential for a second sizeable mixed-use project anchored by purpose-built student accommodation. Planning consent was obtained the following year for a mixed-use development which includes 1,204 student beds, 24,031 square feet of retail accommodation and a separate grade A office building of 49,692 square feet. The student accommodation building which rises over 100 metres was completed in August 2010 and was the tallest student accommodation building in Europe when it opened as Nido Spitalfields.
First joint venture with Blackstone and creation of Nido
Generation introduced Blackstone to the nascent Purpose-Built Student Accommodation market in London and secured funding
to acquire and redevelop 200 Pentonville Road. The scheme design was optimised resulting in a planning consent for 846 student accommodation units together with ancillary gymnasium, café, laundry, common room and cycle store, 48 BTR units, 14 affordable housing units, 1,820 square
feet of new retail and 18,969 square feet of Class D1 accommodation. The development which opened in September 2007,
launched the Nido Student Living platform and brand, and redefined high quality PBSA in the United Kingdom.
Nido Student Living scheme, Pentonville Rd
Generation devise a mixed-use scheme for the redevelopment of 200 Pentonville Rd in Kings Cross providing 947 student accommodation units together with retail and residential accommodation.
Foundation
Generation Estates was founded by Alan Artus and Gareth Davies following successful careers with leading developers during the 1980s and 1990s.
Generation’s initial focus is on mixed use development opportunities in and around London.
ESG
To successfully embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations at the heart of Generation’s investment strategy, an ESG Policy has been established to ensure that sound management and ethical principles are incorporated throughout all business activities. Find out more.
Senior Management
Alan Artus
| Chief Executive Officer
With over 40 years of experience, Alan has an extensive track record, having held senior positions at several leading development companies before founding Generation Estates, including City & West End Developments and London & Edinburgh Trust.
Between 2010 and 2015, Alan led a joint venture with The Carlyle Group, creating and operating a £530m portfolio of high-quality purpose built student accommodation assets. Before this, Alan worked on three joint ventures with The Blackstone Group that developed and operated over 2,500 student beds.
Gareth Davies
| Chief Operating Officer
Gareth has over 40 years’ real estate industry experience and has specialised in purpose-built student accommodation for the last 20 years.
Today, Gareth is responsible for running all of Generation’s various entities, whilst also overseeing any commercial leasing within the portfolios.
As a result of exposure to PBSA prior to the formation of Generation, Gareth was able to identify the potential to redevelop 200 Pentonville Road as a sizeable mixed-use scheme anchored by student accommodation. The project was notable as it introduced both Generation and Blackstone into the London student accommodation market and the completed project, Nido Kings Cross, redefined student living in London and ultimately across the UK. This was followed by two further projects with Blackstone, the creation of Pure Student Living with The Carlyle Group, Highlight Student Living in the Republic of Ireland and the Europa Generation Student Fund.
Gareth is a founder of Generation Estates Ltd and a founding Partner in Generation Partners LLP where he serves as the Chief Operating Officer. He is also a Partner in the Europa Generation Student Fund and a member of its investment committee and a Director of Now Student Living Limited.
Prior to the creation of Generation Estates, Gareth was a Director of The Osborne Group where he was responsible for a number of mixed-use development projects in London. He started his career at St Quintin in the City of London and was subsequently a Partner of Grimley JR Eve.
Gareth hold an honours degree from the University of Reading where he read Land Management qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor in 1985. He is currently on the board of Yarmouth Harbour where he is Commissioner.
Nick Kinder
| Chief Investment Officer
Nick Kinder has over 20 years of experience in real estate and banking. Nick co-founded Europa Generation and Generation Partners with Alan and Gareth and has been responsible for acquiring and financing circa 6,000 beds for the Europa Generation Fund, Ares Management and Crosstree Real Estate Partners.
Before entering the PBSA market in 2008, Nick worked in the European Real Estate Finance business at Deutsche Bank for seven years and before that at DTZ, focusing on European Real Estate funds, corporate finance and strategy.
Nick holds a BSc from Bristol University, an MSc from Bayes (Cass) Business School and a Certificate of Business from Columbia Business School in New York.
Rina Patel
| Chief Financial Officer
Rina Patel has over 20 years of experience in financial services, predominantly with Real Estate Funds; Rina also spent several years with PE FOF Pantheon Ventures with responsibilities spanning finance, compliance, and risk, dealing closely with the Investment and Operations teams.
Rina spent a few years post-qualification with KPMG in their Property Tax department before moving into Real Estate Funds. Rina is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant (FCA) and holds a Financial Planning Certificate.
Florentina-Diana Soare
| Head of Investment Management
Florentina is Head of Investment Management at Generation Partners responsible for end-to-end transaction management, including business planning and financing. Florentina has over 10 years of real estate industry experience and has specialised in purpose-built student accommodation since 2011.
Before joining Generation, Florentina worked in the portfolio management team at iQ Student Accommodation focusing on acquisitions and value add initiatives and was closely involved in delivering the sale of the 32,000-bed portfolio to Blackstone in 2020 for c. £4.7bn.
Florentina holds a BSc from London School of Economics and Political Science and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.
Anna Beer
| Head of Asset Management
Anna Beer is the Head of Asset Management at Generation Partners and leads strategic, proactive asset management across the portfolio. Anna has over 10 years of experience in real estate brokerage and asset management and has worked within the PBSA sector since 2016.
Before joining Generation Partners, Anna worked at DWS and CBRE focusing on PBSA and Operational Real Estate, European Real Estate funds, CRE brokerage and valuations.
Anna holds a BA and MSc from Loughborough University, an MSc from the University of Reading and is a qualified Chartered Surveyor (MRICS).
Rachel Mallia
| Head of Development
Rachel heads up the Development team at Generation Partners overseeing planning, product development and delivery activities. With over 20 years of experience in property development, she has managed residential real estate projects valued at over £500m across the UK and Europe.
Her previous role was Development Director at CA Ventures, delivering over 1200 high quality purpose built student accommodation beds from acquisition to completion and eventual disposal.
Rachel holds a BA (Architecture) from the University of Malta, an MSc (Structural Engineering) from the University of Surrey and an Executive MBA from London Business School.
Paul Watson
| Managing Director
Paul leads the development and delivery of the operating platform Now Student Living. Delivering the onboarding, integration and ongoing operations of all new assets into the portfolio. Managing ongoing performance across all aspects of the residential estate.
Paul started his career in student accommodation in 2004 and has extensive experience in the commercial and physical operation of PBSA. Before joining Generation, Paul was Operations Director at Liberty Living and sat on the Board during the CPPIB period of ownership, and he was central to delivering the sale of the 25,000-bed portfolio to Unite Students in 2019 for c.£2.4Bn.
Neil Ellis
| Director of Operations
Neil has a track record of 20 years operational management in the PBSA sector. Neil leads on ensuring strategic aims are delivered across cross functional teams. Neil’s experience incorporates change management, streamlining processes, ensuring teams meet and exceed customer expectations whilst driving informed decision making across all aspects of operational delivery.
Neil has a proven track record in ensuring sustainable growth aligned to robust operational cost management to maximise profitability.
Jackie Hudson
| Director of HR & People
Jackie has over 20 years’ experience leading Human Resources in the PBSA sector across the UK and Europe. Initially as HR Director for Liberty Living from 2003 to 2020, Jackie built a team to support the expansion of the people side of the business from 3000 beds to over 25,000 beds and led the transfer and integration of circa 300 operational staff to Unite Students following their acquisition of Liberty Living.
As Director of People & HR with Now Student Living, Jackie is harnessing her expertise and experience to develop an HR strategy and build a team which will support the growth of Now Student Living.
Jackie is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and holds a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management (with Distinction). Jackie is also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership with a Level 7 diploma in Leadership and Management.
Tom Bush
| Commercial Director
As the Commercial Director, Tom spearheads the Sales and Marketing team within Now Student Living. His focus is on the delivery of budgeted revenue and occupancy forecasts; structuring campaigns that complement the company’s investor partners’ goals.
Tom has over 10 years’ sales and marketing experience within the PBSA sector. He started his journey at Campus Living Villages, introducing sales processes across their UK, as well as at times, their US and New Zealand portfolios. He then moved over to Liberty Living where he assumed the role of Head of Sales and just prior to his appointment at Now Student Living, he was the Sales and Marketing Director at AXO Student Living where he developed and led a sales and marketing team to achieve record revenues and occupancies across their portfolio for consecutive years.
Russell Johnson
| Director of Operational Finance
Russell Johnson is Now Student Living’s Head of Finance. Russell has over 11 years of experience in financial services, predominantly with Real Estate Funds and a UK REIT. These included UK logistics, offices, land development and more recently a student accommodation fund with circa 2,000 beds.
Russell undertook his training at Deloitte South Africa qualifying as a Chartered Accountants in 2016, providing audit and assurance services within the Financial Services division to a client base comprising of listed banks, asset back financial services companies pension funds. Russell also worked at Goldman Sachs in London post-qualification between 2016 and 2018.
Russell holds both a Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting and a Bachelor of Business Science: Finance with Accounting from the University of Cape Town. Russell is a Chartered Accountant CA (SA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and was credited with a Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) Certification.
Elise Street
| Director of Organisational Excellence
As Head of Organisational Excellence, Elise is committed to optimising processes and driving business initiatives to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and overall performance of operations. Elise’s experience in project management in both residential and commercial property sectors assist with identifying, planning, and implementing improvement opportunities and organisational transformation across the business.
Elise develops and supports the delivery of training programs and business policies and procedures to build capabilities across the organisation. Elise is passionate about facilitating sharing best practice to maintain a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Since joining Now Student Living, Elise has led on implementing and embedding our property management system Concurrent and continues to seek solutions to optimise operations and drive business excellence. Elise’s team ensures internal and investor reporting is accurate, timely and informative, whilst maintaining validated data within the business systems.
Martin Wade
| Head of Facilities & Sustainability
As the Head of Facilities & Sustainability at Now Students, Martin is dedicated to ensuring our buildings not only meet compliance standards but also exude excellence in presentation while operating in the most sustainable and environmentally efficient manner possible.
With a keen eye for detail and a passion for sustainability, Martin meticulously oversees every aspect of our facilities to ensure they align with regulatory requirements and embody our commitment to environmental stewardship.
Through strategic planning and innovative solutions, Martin strives to optimise our building’s performance, creating spaces that are both functional and environmentally responsible, fostering a culture of sustainability within our organisation.
