Harrison Street appints new Europe CEO
International investment management firm Harrison Street has appointed Paul Bashir as CEO of it’s European business, effective 1st June …
Student Accommodation – Weathering the Storm
Universities closed their physical doors in mid-March and made a rapid transition to virtual teaching. Most universities have enabled students to leave accommodation contracts for the summer term, and summer business has been cancelled. A number of private accommodation operators followed suit by allowing students to request a refund of summer term rent.
Many students remain in residences, including international students unable to leave, careleavers and those affected by the virus, and work continues to ensure the safety and welfare of residents. Cushman & Wakefield data suggests that the cost to the main private sector providers offering contract releases is almost equal in size to universities, accounting for a proportion of revenue for the summer term, and resulting in short term pressure on university and investor cashflows.
Looking forward, COVID-19 makes planning difficult for the forthcoming academic year. Universities face uncertainties around recruitment, with caps on UK student intake proposed by Universities UK to restrict aggressive competition, as universities seek to backfill the partial loss of up to £7bn in international students’ fee income …
A turbulent year, but predicted clear skies for 2021
Last week, we saw the industry begin to shape a ‘new normal’ for the day-to-day, the next academic year, and beyond. We interviewed Jo Winchester, Executive Director in the Student Accommodation Valuation and Advisory Team at CBRE, to hear her anticipation of the duration of this crisis for PBSA and coliving.
In her words “I think COVID-19 is totally unprecedented. It feels worse than the financial crisis in some ways. The impact will be felt for a while.” While Jo adopts a serious perspective on the current situation, she has hope for a potential return to normalcy in the academic year 2021/2022 …
The Student Hotel – Interview, part 2
Zoom interview Charlie MacGregor part 2 …
Sodexo provides virtual support programme for students in lockdown
Student Living by Sodexo has launched its residential living programme as a virtual service for students at Sodexo managed university student accommodation sites across the UK.
The new virtual service builds on Sodexo’s existing Residency Living programme, which has been developed to help students maintain their mental wellbeing and offer them the opportunity to learn new skills during a time when movement and socialising is restricted.
Normally Sodexo would be looking after over 10,000 students across University and private accommodation sites across the UK. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak many students returned home to their families, but there remains a large number of students still in residence …
Harrison Street appoints new CEO
Harrison Street, an investment management firm focused on alternative real assets, has hired Paul Bashir as chief executive officer of the firm’s European business, effective 1 June 2020.
Bashir was most recently president and chief operating officer at Round Hill Capital, a real estate investment and asset management firm.
In this new role, Bashir will lead the expansion of Harrison Street’s strategies which focus on investments in student housing, build-to-rent, and healthcare real estate. He will also be responsible for overseeing and growing the firm’s talented team of professionals across the UK and Europe. Bashir will be based in London and report to Robert Mathias, partner and head of Harrison Street’s international business …
Thoughts on coliving post-corona
There has been a lot of discussion around coliving post-corona. The following are my (Gui Perdrix, Founder of Coliving Insights) personal opinions and assumptions:
Which type of coliving will be most impacted?
The residential sector remains a stable asset class and the crisis shows that the “nice-to-have” rental options (short-term, high-end, hotel) will be most impacted. My assumption is that it might lead to the term “coliving” being associated post-corona with more long-term forms of living than the currently existing “hotel-living hybrids” targeting the traveling industry.
Which urban coliving spaces are at highest risk?
Urban long-term coliving spaces can be impacted if a) their locations need to be shut down because of health risks, b) their leases are flexible and enough tenants chose to leave the space, c) a significant number of tenants get laid off and forced into cancelling their lease, or d) the stage of the company is still not profitable and/or requires funding to survive the next runaway …
Results days announced for GCSE and A-level grades
Grades for cancelled GCSEs and A-level exams in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will now be published on their original planned results days.
Grades are going to be decided by teachers’ assessments – with an initial suggestion that results could be issued earlier than usual this year.
But A-level results will be published on 13 August and GCSEs on 20 August …
The Student Hotel – Interview, part 1
in the Zoom interview (part 1 of 3) with Charlie MacGregor, founder and CEO of The Student Hotel, he shares with us his thoughts around operating in a crisis and why The Student Hotel remains open across Europe …
Samuel Vetrak heads up global consultancy BONARD, specialising in data insights, business solutions and M&A advice in international education. He answered our questions about future developments across the industry and from insight gained via his China office.
The PIE: Where does international education and student housing sit during this pandemic?
Samuel Vetrak: For our sector, mobility is essential and when it was suddenly restricted, there was a big impact. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic and related economic difficulties have hit the industry at the most critical time, prior to summer and just before the start of the new school year.
It was a sad and hard hit that nobody could prepare for. Adaptation is taking the best out of all of us, but it needs to be done properly and quickly as otherwise, this will hurt us all for a long time. On the other hand, the student sector has more solid long-term prospects than other sectors – student mobility has increased after every downturn in the last decades.
The PIE: Given your global perspective, what do you think we can expect going forward? …