Xior, together with other student housing companies, is doing its part in tackling the COVID-19 crisis

Xior Student Housing NV, the Belgian real estate investment trust (BE-REIT) specialised in student housing in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, together with Eckelmans group Flanders and Brussels, Group Globiss, MB Invest, Quares Student Housing and Scaldis, communicated yesterday about the efforts she and her peers in Belgium are making to help their students and their parents to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Also in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, Xior is assuming its social responsibility.

At Xior, we are extremely aware of the fact that the COVID-19 crisis is affecting people of all walks of life, and is in particular hitting the most vulnerable among us. That also includes those students and parents of students who because of the COVID-19 crisis have seen their income reduced (due to, amongst other reasons, the loss of student jobs, employment and other income of the parents), and for whom higher education is an important lever for social mobility, which is of paramount importance, in times of crisis more than ever.

Together with an important part of our colleagues in the student housing market in Belgium, Xior has therefore formulated an answer yesterday. Xior has heard, loudly and clearly, the request for solidarity in accordance with the means of each, posed by (a.o.) student associations, various universities and governments. They therefore announced additional measures to respond to this crisis, to support their tenants and to fully assume their social responsibility.

This COVID-19 crisis is evolving day by day, and is of course monitored very closely by Xior. As of today, we can look back on a few weeks of experience with the changed landscape that this crisis and the crisis measures have created, including virtual classes being organised at the universities. We saw that an important number of our Xior students have chosen to stay at their Xior home. Especially for the Xior students in Spain and Portugal, where the state of alert and emergency measures announced by the government explicitly did not lead to the closure of student residences; the continuity of our services is of the utmost importance. Several local and international students rely on Xior's teams on site, who make every effort to provide them with a safe, comfortable and healthy place to spend these measures.

We are therefore now able to make a realistic assessment of the additional costs, economies and efforts that go into providing all of our students first and foremost with that which they can always expect from us, a safe and healthy place to live. Furthermore, we can make a first assessment of the commercial effort which we communicated to you all immediately at the start of this crisis to which we already received many positive reactions.

In the light of this information, Xior, together with a large part of the Belgian student housing sector, has decided, for the current academic year, to offer its Belgian students financial support amounting to 10% of the total rental income for the months of April and May (taking into account the exam periods in June that will be organized on campus of the Belgian universities). This effort will be made concrete towards the tenants, and will be distributed among the tenants in such a way that it naturally offers the strongest support to the most vulnerable.

In the other countries where Xior is active (Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands), similar commercial efforts have already been made towards the students for the current academic year, so that Xior continues to support all students (and their parents) in the countries where it is active. For all nearly 10,000 current Xior students, this involves a substantial financial effort, which is made within the financial margins, optimisations and cost savings that can be created in the light of changing circumstances. In addition, Xior continues to pay special attention to individual tenants who are in a particularly precarious situation, seeking solutions on a case-by-case basis.

In elaborating all these measures, Xior focuses on the following basic principles:

• No profiting by abusing the situation. Where economies are realised, these are passed on.
• Supporting the Xior team members who continue to ensure the safety and well-being of the students and ensuring that they have the means required to keep doing their jobs in these difficult circumstances fully, at the service of our students.
• Safeguarding the financially strong position of Xior, who thereby does not pass on financial difficulties from its tenants to its investors.
• Guaranteeing the quality and safety of our student residences, not only this academic year, but for all years to come.
• The residences remain at the disposal of the students who need them.
• Continuing the rental contracts, which assures our Xior students have their housing needs met, now, in the exams to come and, as the case may be, next academic year.

For the coming academic year, Xior is fully committed to online rental, via virtual tours and online booking platforms. The first results in this area are extremely positive, and the response in those student cities where the 2020-2021 rental season is already underway is very encouraging.

CEO Christian Teunissen: "We are convinced that with these measures Xior is taking on its social responsibility for the academic year 2019-2020. We hope that this will help all Xior students and their parents to get through this difficult time and come out the other side stronger together, so that our students can now focus, once again, on their studies, without having to worry about their housing”.

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_{For more information about this press release, please contact:
Xior Student Housing NV
Mechelsesteenweg 34, box 108
2018 Antwerp, Belgium
www.xior.be}

_{Christian Teunissen, CEO
Frederik Snauwaert, CFO
info@xior.be
T +32 3 257 04 89}

_{Xior Investor Relations
Sandra Aznar
Head of Investor Relations
ir@xior.be
T +32 3 257 04 89}