Student Accommodation Services

• Investment acquisitions and disposals
• Planning and development consultancy / feasibility studies
• Development funding solutions
• Going concern business sale
• Valuations

Strutt & Parker's works across the UK for a range of clients including universities, investors, developers, lenders and land owners. Our track record includes arranging development funding, the disposal of student accommodation property, valuation advice to student accommodation owners and development advice to universities.

Student Accommodation Market Update

The 2016/2017 academic year has seen record numbers of students placed for higher education, with c.1.7mil full-time students in the UK. Simultaneously, the supply of purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) bedrooms, reached only c.568,000, demonstrating that there is a significant undersupply of stock. Investors and developers are therefore eager to cater to this demand and invest in UK student property.

In a period of economic uncertainty, traditional institutional investors and PropCos seek to diversify their portfolios through alternative sectors, such as student accommodation, in order to achieve stable income returns. This has led to a significant increase in the popularity of the student accommodation sector in recent years, with c.£5.7bn invested into the sector in 2015 and £3.5bn in 2016.

There has been a particularly strong interest from international investors into the student accommodation market as they seek to take advantage of a weak pound and higher than average residential buy-to-let returns.

In spite of this increase in investment, the student accommodation currently only makes up c.2% of the UK residential market.

At Strutt & Parker, we are confident that our wide ranging experience in this sector places us as a front runner to provide agency advice within this market.

Summary Points

• 1.7 million full-time students in the UK in 2016
• 569,000 PBSA beds in 2016
• Stable income returns attracting investors during economic uncertainty
• Strong interest from international investors seeking to take advantage of the weak pound and higher than average residential buy-to-let returns
• £5.7bn invested into student accommodation in 2015
• Student accommodation only 2% of UK residential market