Scape Australia has closed a joint venture to develop 3000 new student accommodation rooms with Dutch pension fund APG and Canadian property giant Ivanhoe Cambridge, seeded with 1000 rooms in the Gurrowa Place Queen Victoria Market development in Melbourne.

The joint venture, which intends to borrow a further $400 million to complement the $600 million in equity contributed by the three partners is the third such fund for privately owned Scape and will focus the balance of investment on sites in central Sydney, cofounder Craig Carracher said.