By Jack Mendel
Unite Students, the group which provides accommodation for people in university, has disposed of six sites across the country worth £184m.
The company, which provides housing for 70,000 students across 23 UK cities, made the announcement to markets this morning, as it looks to align to the “strongest universities” instead.
Properties being offloaded include Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Sheffield, accounting for 2,948 beds in total.
Of the six sites, five are owned through the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund (USAF), an investment fund, while one was wholly owned.
It said the Unite share of the properties was £76m, with the average age of the properties being 18 years, compared to the overall Unite average of 13 years. Unite said 31 per cent were being let on short-term deals, well below the 53 per cent average.
The firm said the decision was part of the “portfolio management strategy to increase alignment to high and mid-ranked universities which have the strongest outlook for student demand and support sustainable rental growth.”
It added the sale of the properties would be “recycled into asset management activity and used to meet redemption requests in USAF”.
Joe Lister, Unite Students Chief Executive, commented: “These disposals continue our disciplined approach of recycling capital for reinvestment and further increases our alignment to the strongest universities.
“The growth outlook for purpose-built student accommodation remains compelling and we are tracking a number of new investment opportunities at attractive returns.”
