Student Accommodation has been a stand-out asset class for several years and is now one of the more mature alternative markets. Universities and private providers continue to navigate their way through operational changes and reduced income, but the strong fundamentals remain and will continue to attract developers, investors and lenders to the sector.
Competition between universities and purpose build student accommodation providers will continue to tighten, putting increased pressure on the sector to upgrade the quality of their assets, provide the appropriate mix of accommodation and provide value for money. Affordability and viability will be increasingly ‘hot topics’ and planning policy has already begun to play a part in seeking to influence these issues with the introduction of an affordable student housing policy in the Draft London Plan, with viability assessments required if at least 35% is not secured as affordable, as well as nominations agreements being required upon the majority of the student accommodation.
Our specialist student accommodation and higher education teams work alongside our planning, development and capital markets teams to provide a full service offering identifying new opportunities and guiding you through all aspects of planning, viability, development, funding, valuation, asset management, acquisition and disposal.
We advise over 65 universities on a range of property advice; we’re in the market advising on investment transactions; and our extremely strong planning and development team is market leading, giving you reassurance that we possess the expertise to help you in these challenging times.
