Unite Students has decided to sell one of its priciest London digs in a bid to raise cash for its £600m development pipeline.
The student housing developer is selling 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 also one of Unite’s most expensive in terms of room rates, with rooms at the halls costing students between £300-330 per week.
Unite has a UK-wide development pipeline of 9,000 beds, worth £600m, which has been secured for 2019. It is looking to dispose of some assets to fund its development drive.
Wolburn Place will be sold as a freehold investment, and is likely to attract interest from office, residential and hotel developers who could redevelop the halls of residence, subject to planning.
Student housing developers looking to increase their foothold in the centre of London are also likely to be interested.
It is increasingly competitive to acquire sites in and around London for student housing, and developers are struggling to keep up with London’s rising 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 a single year’s delivery of more than 5,000 student bedrooms, Knight Frank predicts that 70% of students will be unable to access purpose-built student accommodation.
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