Year: 2009

Mark Creedy, the former head of Legal & General Property, has joined Unite Group to oversee the management of its £877m UK student accommodation fund.

Creedy, who will be managing director of fund management at Unite, has been working with Unite, the listed student accommodation provider since January 2009 as a consultant to establish best practice procedures and explore opportunities for enhancing its fund and asset management business.

In his new role he will be responsible for the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund and will play an instrumental role within the senior team as Unite continues to focus on the evolution of its business model as a developer and co-investing asset manager …

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A single bedroom flat with no bath and a kitchen squeezed into a cupboard has been marketed to students at £548 a week, leading to charges of profiteering by landlords.

It is on the seventh floor of a privately run hall of residence, whose owner is endorsed by University College, London (UCL) in its official brochure.

The £28,000 annual cost of the flat highlights the soaring cost of student accommodation. Traditional halls of residence with heavily subsidised rents are being replaced by blocks built and managed by highly profitable companies, which have hiked rents by 8% in the past year alone …

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Plans to turn a derelict industrial site into a student village have been handed to Carlisle City Council.

The £7.5m proposal for the Denton Holme area includes 205 self-contained accommodation units, retail facilities and an internet cafe.

There would also be 40 craft workshops, aimed at giving University of Cumbria students a place to start their own business once they have graduated …

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Students have accrued a record level of debt by swapping charity shops and baked beans for Waitrose and champagne, a leading academic has claimed.

Students now have an expectation of living in plush houses, shopping at Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, eating smoked salmon and drinking champagne, according to Kevin Sharpe, professor of renaissance studies at London’s Queen Mary University.

His comments, published yesterday in the Times Higher Education magazine, came as figures revealed as many as 175,000 students across the UK are still waiting to receive loans and grants for the current academic year …

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Planning permission has been granted for the first stage of the University of Oxford’s Radcliffe Observatory Quarter to provide additional teaching and learning space.

Oxford City Council approved plans for the 4ha central site, which will see the refurbishment of the Radcliffe Infirmary and St Luke’s Chapel into university accommodation. Neighbouring Somerville College will…

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The London Borough of Wandsworth has approved plans for a 452-bed postgraduate student accommodation scheme in south London.

The plans were submitted by a joint venture formed between Berkeley First and Imperial College London. The development will be built on a 0.5-hectare site at Winstanley Road, north of…

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Ever since local councils were given the powers to license small landlords for houses of multiple occupancy (HMO), they were bound to use it as a revenue-boosting opportunity. How else to pay for the swollen bureaucracy, the £100,000-plus salaries and the profligate ineptitude? 

Small landlords in Newcastle are bearing the brunt of this. Newcastle City Council charges £1,100 for an HMO licence which costs £600 over the river in Gateshead – and only £250 in Basingstoke and £270 in Norwich.

Furthermore, this is £1,100 per house, even though the checks on a landlord’s credit and criminal records, supposedly a large part of the cost, would be made only once …

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A city school could be in line for a £4m redevelopment – if it sells off part of its playing fields for student housing.

The Echo can reveal that the governors at Cantonian High School in Fairwater are in discussions with the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (Uwic) and a developer to work as a partnership on the project.

It is understood the school governors believe the land in question is poorly used and that the cash generated from its sale could help turn the school into a “centre of sporting excellence” …

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Student housing provider UNITE Group posted a 1 percent third quarter rise in the portfolio value of its UK Student Accommodation Fund, and said the sector was coping well in the face of economic headwinds.

The fund’s property portfolio was independently valued at 877 million pounds and the estimated net asset value at September 30 was 0.715 pounds per unit, a 0.4 percent rise since June 30.

“The fund’s performance in the third quarter of 2009 demonstrates the continued resilience of student accommodation and its ability to generate consistent occupational performance and rental growth despite challenging economic conditions,” said Chief Financial Officer Joe Lister …

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Contractor scoops contracts with University of Exeter and Lincolnshire County Council

Balfour Beatty has won two education sector contracts totalling £134m.

The first is the £77m deal to build student accommodation at the University of Exeter. It is its third contract award by the University Partnerships Programme and is due to complete in late 2012 …

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