The StoreWest Bluebird Self-Storage Development Fund (“The Fund”) is off to a fantastic start. 3projects have begun construction, 4-6 projects have the potential to begin construction by next spring, and new opportunities are being presented to us on a weekly basis. We are very happy with the pace of progress thus far.
The Fund’s investment objective is to achieve capital appreciation through the development and sale of Class A self-storage projects across Canada.
ICM Bluebird Canadian Self Storage LP (“Fund”) was launched in December 2022 to invest in the consolidation and acquisition of a portfolio of self storage facilities across Canada.
We are pleased to send you Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust’s Q3 2023 Management Report. We have had another successful leasing season, with current occupancy exceeding 99% and strong growth in rents on turnover beds. Interestingly, we had about 42% turnover this year, which means that we are expecting strong rent growth again next year when some of this year’s renewing tenants end their leases. We have a rental gap-to-market of $5.0 million and are targeting to deliver $42.5 million of NOI in the 2023/2024 academic year.
We continue to monitor and effectively manage our capital structure to optimize our returns. We have an attractive loan-to-value ratio of 46.5% on our mortgage debt, with a weighted average interest rate of 3.47% and staggered maturity dates. With the growth in our property values, we remain confident that we will be able to effectively refinance our maturing debt in 2024 and 2025.
As previously communicated, we temporarily closed the REIT for new investments in May 2023. We did this primarily because of the stalemate we were seeing in the market. While we continued to evaluate investment opportunities, there were substantial gaps between vendor asking prices and the price we were willing to bid. In addition, the debt markets were quite challenging to predict, making it difficult to underwrite investments.
We are now starting to see some attractive opportunities become available, where there is either attractive in-place debt (that can be assumed), the transaction can be completed at a price that delivers an attractive return for our REIT, or the opportunity is highly strategic. We also expect that several opportunities will become available at attractive prices over the next year or so, as highly leveraged vendors need to refinance properties at current interest rates. We want to be ready to act on these opportunities. Accordingly, we are pleased to announce that we will re-open the REIT for investments effective immediately, for the next monthly closing date as of November 30, 2023.
We are pleased to have delivered an annualized return of 12.5% since inception. We are also excited about our future growth, which continues to look strong, both from organic growth within our portfolio and from future investments. We are grateful for your continued support.
Below are the links to our Q3 2023 Management Report and Q3 2023 Financial Statements. We have also included the press release announcing our re-opening. Please contact us if you have any questions or need additional information.
Management ReportPress Release - October 2023
Financial Statements
See-More, at 1400 Seymour Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, consists of 491 beds adjacent to Dalhousie University.
See-More is at 100% occupancy for the 2023/2024 academic year