Purpose-built student accommodation developer and operator Scape has launched a £500m sister company to build a 5,000-bed co-living platform in the UK.
Morro will take over the developer’s four existing London PBSA schemes in Hackney, Surrey Quays, Walthamstow (pictured) and Haggerston.
Scape, launched in 2008, currently has a portfolio of 30,000 PBSA beds in the UK, Ireland, the US and Australia.
The UK portfolio includes a co-living development in the Guild in Guildford that will provide 403 PBSA beds and 113 co-living beds.
Adam Brockley, chief development officer and founder of Morro, told EG: “We have always had an eye on the fact that we thought that there was something in a hybrid model of accommodation.
“We had our benchmark scheme in Guildford and we now want to invest in that substantially and grow that platform considerably.”
In terms of new acquisitions for Morro, Brockley said the company is interested in “satellite towns”.
The developer chose Guildford due to the high local employment owing to the growing tech sector in the city.
Morro is also looking to acquire sites in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol.
Brockley said the platform will also consider cities such as Stevenage, Cambridge and Salford due to the growing tech and life sciences hubs in the cities.
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