Monro on board for Vita student venture
ANGUS Monro, chairman of The Hut Group and former Matalan chief executive, is one of a number of investors behind an upmarket student accommodation business that is launching in Liverpool and Manchester.
Vita is converting three buildings in Liverpool into 350 rooms and will soon start on site at Manchester’s First Street.
The business has been set up by Mark Stott, founder of the Dubai-focused property investment business Select Property based in Wilmslow, and Chris Oakes of Alderley Edge-based upmarket developer Huntsmere.
Backed by the founders and angel investors such as Mr Monro, who also chairs Select, Vita has bought the North West sites and is agreeing terms on a development plot in Bristol. There is also a plan for a site in Glasgow.
Construction is funded by selling student rooms off-plan to mainly international investors. Mr Stott said demand has been strong in Liverpool which is 85% sold, and in Manchester where he hopes to have sold 150 of the 279 planned by the time builders are on site in May.
He said: “There isn’t a brand in the student property market, there are names within it, but there’s no brand that people think, ‘I’m going to that town, I’d love to stay in one of their buildings’.”
“We’ve got great products in Dubai and investors based in the Far East, the Middle East and Russia who want UK products. That usually means London which is too expensive so we looked at the student product which is really hostel standard. It’s a very basic product and all the schemes are the same, no thought has been put into it.
“Vita was born from developing a product we knew we could take to market to international students. We’re targeting Russell Group universities which have got an international base of students and that ties in with where we’re selling the units.”
He added: “There’s still a shortage of quality student accommodation in Manchester city centre. There’s been a big shift from students moving from the suburbs into the city. The Student Castle, for example, is 100% let.”
