Aston University agreement boosts student accommodation group
A new agreement with Aston University is helping to sustain progress at student accommodation provider, Unite Students.
In an AGM statement covering the period since January 1, 2017, the group said its business had continued to perform strongly in 2017 with good levels of demand for its accommodation from students in the UK as well as those from the EU and other international territories.
This demand has translated into a strong lettings performance, with reservations at 82% as of May 11 (80% in 2016) at pricing that is supportive of like for like rental growth of between 3.0-3.5%.
“We have made positive progress following the acquisition of our first major on-campus portfolio at Aston University with reservations across the property already at over 90% for the 2017/18 academic year,” it said.
“These reservations are under-pinned by a new nomination agreement with Aston University for 1,950 beds; with the remaining beds let directly to students.”
This initial one-year nomination agreement for its first full year of operation was agreed in a short time period and is the first stage of a long-term strategic relationship between the university and Unite.
It said it had also made good progress in enhancing the quality of its portfolio, recycling £434m from the sale of non-core assets – of which Unite’s share was £170m, against a target of £150-£200m for the year.
The money will be used to fund the group’s development pipeline through to the end of 2019.
The development pipeline now totals more than 7,000 beds in strong university locations and is expected to add 12-14p of earnings per share when completed and fully let.
It said it continued to see further development opportunities for 2020 and beyond.
Richard Smith, CEO of Unite Students, said: “We have made excellent progress in the first four months of the year, not only in the progression of our development pipeline, but in strengthening our relationships with universities and continuing to demonstrate how our market leading operating platform enables great customer service.
“Our lettings for 2017/18 are substantially under-pinned and given the ongoing high demand for quality accommodation from students and universities alike, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year and beyond.”
