26 | OPINION | STUDENT LIVING Read a related story: click here IT’S ALL IN THE PLANNING By James Hunt, Development Director at Unite
THE DEVELOPMENT OF modern purpose- built student accommodation has evolved into a highly sophisticated business involving many stages, most of which are unseen to the students who make these properties their home. We not only provide a home for 41,000
students every year, but also develop new sites to meet the continued strong demand for well-managed, purpose- built student accommodation. We are currently rolling out a targeted regional development plan which has required a large amount of detailed research and analysis of university towns and cities across the UK over the last year. The process of choosing prospective
sites requires us to be highly selective, taking into account future growth paterns in student numbers both geographically and in terms of their demographics. We also need to ensure the development will bring positive benefits to the local community and universities.
RESEARCH-LED APPROACH We initially compile an initial long list of cities that may offer the potential for a new development. This process looks at a city’s economic prospects, development plans of its universities and student housing already in place. This empirical evidence will be
supported by our wider research – for example our annual student experience survey – and the HE sector consultation and policy intelligence that is an everyday part of our business. Last year we carried out a scenario planning exercise with the higher education sector to understand how current long-run trends could affect the demand for student accommodation over the next 20 years. We then analyse the
characteristics of each city’s pool of accommodation including the balance between houses in multiple occupation (HMO) and purpose-built accommodation. Our most recent student experience survey showed that 92% of applicants expect to
accommodation which meets our and the student’s standards. Easily accessible transport links and the availability of local amenities also ranked highly as accommodation requirements among applicants and current students. Similarly, the potential for a very
complicated planning process with an extended lead-time complicates and discourages development decisions. Our development team spend months working closely with planning authorities and local councils to ensure that the buildings will be of benefit to the community, relieve pressure on residential housing and include the provision of retail and community space where appropriate. Our analysis includes planning for
ABOVE: The Moonraker Point development
live in purpose-built accommodation in their first year at university. Such a strong preference makes the balance between HMO and purpose-built accommodation a significant one in terms of development viability. A further consideration is whether
Unite Students has an existing presence within the town or city. We need to balance the investment required to roll out our operational platform to a new location with the potential to have a positive impact on students and local communities. Relationships with local universities can be a deciding factor here, as currently half of our beds are let via university partners.
MEETING STUDENT NEEDS We then take an on-the-ground approach to finding new sites, walking the streets to spot off market sites that have the potential to meet all of the
criteria that students look for in their accommodation. Once a prospective site has been selected, we look at its potential on which to build
circumstances and scenarios that could derail the viability of a development at the eleventh hour. Influencing factors in this context can sometimes be as mundane as a site’s shape. Inevitably, as a listed company, Unite Students also has to consider whether a development investment will yield an acceptable rental return within the bounds of the financial restrictions that students face. This concept of longevity and
contributing positively to the future growth of communities has influenced our forward planning. Unite Students has a five year, forward-looking strategy and has raised funds in the capital markets for its development plans through to 2016. Our development plans have an increased emphasis on regional opportunities, investing £250m of capital into developing 5,000 further student bedrooms in regional locations in England and Scotland. This is not to say that London is not important to us; however the majority of our development over the last five years was focussed on London and there are now growing barriers to entry in the capital. Over the last two years, student accommodation developers have increasingly been priced out of the market. Planning policy has also been significantly tightened making it a much tougher development environment. In the meantime, regional communities will benefit from our investment. UB
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www.universitybusiness.co.uk | T: @UB_UK
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