Tokoro Capital secures £27.35m loan from Leumi UK to turbocharge cluster-led student housing platform
Posted: 10 Jul 2025 | Share
Tokoro Capital has secured a £27.35m loan from real estate lender Leumi UK to turbocharge its cluster-led student housing platform, which focuses on serving domestic students in Russell Group cities at a more affordable price point. There is scope to increase the facility to £50m in the future.
The financing will re-capitalise Tokoro’s existing portfolio located in Leeds, Durham, Manchester and Newcastle and support future acquisitions. Tokoro’s student platform is managed by Homie, a specialist student housing operator created and funded by Tokoro to efficiently operate and scale its student strategy.
The loan marks the first transaction between Leumi UK and Tokoro Capital and represents Tokoro’s third successful debt raise this year. In March, the company secured financing from Citi for its £100m urban logistics strategy, while in June Tokoro refinanced the £130m Empress and Ada buildings in Mayfair with Aareal Bank.
Leumi UK has a strong and established track record in the student accommodation sector. Earlier this year the lender completed a £23.5m loan for the acquisition of a purpose built student accommodation asset (PBSA) in Durham, and in December it lent £29.95m for the development of an Edinburgh PBSA scheme.
Max Bassadone, partner at Tokoro Capital, commented: “The support of Leumi UK is a testament to our investment thesis, and the operating expertise of our dedicated student management platform, Homie.”
Oliver Stenning, Relationship Director at Leumi UK, added: “This transaction is a further example of Leumi UK’s relationship driven approach and commitment to delivering bespoke financing solutions for our customers. This is a high quality portfolio managed by a specialist operator, and given the market for domestic second and third year students has been largely overlooked to date, these assets have a strong future. We look forward to working with Tokoro as it implements its strategy.”
Homie Founder Tom Ferber commented: “Building and operating a portfolio of well-located, granular student assets is not easy. We’ve spent years curating the operational “special sauce”, and with the support of Leumi UK we’re firmly past the “proof of concept” stage. As the environmental standard changes we continue to drive “mom and pop” landlords out of the market; we’re now ready to really scale and institutionalise this sector.”
Sanjay Sethi, founder and partner at Tokoro Capital, said: “There was good lending appetite across the UK clearing banks and others but Leumi stood out. Their commitment to growing with us, deep understanding of our industry, and close collaboration to tailor a solution around our specific needs made all the difference.”
Greenberg Traurig and Mourants acted as legal counsel to Tokoro on the financing transaction. The real estate aspects were advised upon by Trowers Hamlin and Russel-Cooke. Eversheds Sutherland and Walkers acted as legal counsel for Leumi UK.