A $1 billion student accommodation joint venture has been formed by global investment firm Goldman Sachs and Blue Sky Private Real Estate, a subsidiary of ASX-listed Blue Sky Alternative Investments Limited. The deal represents Goldman Sach's first investment in Australian student accommodation.

The parties will build a portfolio of 5,000 to 10,000 purpose built student accommodation beds across Australia and New Zealand over the over the next few years. The portfolio includes multiple sites across the country proximate to leading universities in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. 

Goldman Sachs has been active in the European student market for a number of years, and earlier this year announced a £2 billion joint venture to form the Vero Group consisting of approximately 600 staff managing almost 25,000 student beds across the UK. Compared to other global student markets including the US and UK, Australia and New Zealand are heavily undersupplied when it comes to student housing.

"Education is Australia’s largest non-resource export industry, worth in excess of $18 billion per annum and growing. The ability to scale further into this domestic thematic, in part due to region’s proximity to a rapidly expanding Asian middle class, is a key focus for the partnership," said Head of Blue Sky Private Real Estate Investing Adam Vaggelas, who formulated the investment strategy along with colleague Nick Singleton.

Entities owned by Goldman Sachs and funds managed by Blue Sky will each own 50 per cent of future projects developed under the Australian joint venture.