Unite Students has put up for sale one of its priciest London digs to raise cash for its £600m development pipeline.
The student housing developer is selling 19-29 Woburn Place, WC1, for £140m and has instructed JLL to find a buyer for the 460-bed scheme. The 120,000 sq ft block sits on a half-acre site in Bloomsbury.
The Bloomsbury residence was converted from an office in 2007. It is one of Unite’s most expensive in terms of room rates, with rooms at the halls costing £300 to £330 per week.
Unite has a UK-wide development pipeline of 9,000 beds, worth £600m, which will be delivered by 2019. It is looking to dispose of some of its assets to fund a development drive.
Woburn Place will be sold as a freehold investment, and has attracted interest from office, residential and hotel developers looking to redevelop the site, subject to planning. Student housing developers looking to increase their central London presence are also interested.
Competition is growing to acquire sites in and around London for student housing, and developers are struggling to keep up with student numbers.
According to Knight Frank, London has the UK’s largest pipeline of both university and private sector stock. The capital also has the largest shortfall of purpose-built student accommodation relative to numbers.
Despite more than 5,000 student bedrooms being delivered in the past year, Knight Frank predicts that 70% of students will be unable to find purpose-built accommodation this year.
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