Richard Smith, Chief Executive of Unite Students, commented:

“2019 was a successful and transformational year for Unite. We made good progress against all of our key metrics and continued to deliver meaningful growth in our recurring earnings. We also leveraged our best-in-class operating platform to complete the acquisition of Liberty Living’s 24,000-bed portfolio. Our strong results remain underpinned by the quality of our value-for-money product and the strength of our long-term relationships with Universities. These qualities differentiate Unite in a sector that remains undersupplied and is anticipating strong growth in student numbers over the next decade, as UK Higher Education maintains its global standing. A UK University education is highly valued by young people around the world.

The outlook for the business remains strong. Reservations for the 2020/21 academic year are in line with record levels, supporting our like-for-like rental growth guidance of 3.0-3.5% through a combination of further utilisation enhancements and value-driven price increases. Together with our development and University partnership pipeline of over 5,000 beds, this provides high visibility over sustainable earnings growth and we maintain our positive outlook.

While Brexit negotiations and the ongoing review of Higher Education funding provide some uncertainty, our strategy of aligning to the best Universities and providing good-quality, value-for-money accommodation for growing segments of the market underpins our long-term confidence in the business.” …

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Co-living is emerging as a lifestyle choice and trending as a credible investment option.

Australia’s rigid obsession with the “Property ladder” is stirring with the influx of new housing concepts. A recent shift to the housing journey, from the tradition of living at home until you had enough of a deposit to purchase a dwelling, first occurred with the addition of modern, high quality purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) to the housing mix.

A new rung, and the next step up from PBSA, is being recognised globally as Co-living, or purpose built graduate, young professional, urban, city dweller, community inspired, experience orientated accommodation…..the definition is opaque.

Essentially, Co-living brings together high-quality rental rooms on short- to long-term leases generally under the boarding house regulations, in the same way that PBSA does, but for a different, and slightly older – 25-34 year old – target market. This operational residential asset class is also individualised from PBSA through sophisticated, more mature design tweaks. These properties are differentiated from the new generation boarding house concept, through the use, and delivery of plentiful community orientated amenity spaces encouraging social interactions, wellbeing and experience, alongside privacy in your living space …

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Students in the UK are increasingly living in private sector halls of residence. Numbers rose by around 10,000 in 2018/19 – to a total of almost 160,700 – up 7% from 2017/18 figures. It’s a result of student demand, enrolment increases and educators wanting to focus on education – and private accommodation providers anticipate further growth, they say.

Annual HESA statistics showed that the latest total of students in private sector halls of residence marked a 36% increase from 2014/15 numbers.

Investors seem to be taking note – a report has suggested transaction values in student housing could exceed £7.5 billion over the next 12 months …

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