Year: 2010

Tony Pidgley’s Berkeley Group has completed one of the largest bank-led development deals of the downturn, buying the Goodman’s Field site in Aldgate on the edge of the City of London.

Berkeley has bought the seven acre site, the largest in the City or City fringe to change hands for many years, for an undisclosed sum from receiver BNP Paribas Real Estate.

It has planning consent for 754 homes, 601 student beds, a 337-bedroom hotel and 107,640 sq ft of office and retail space …

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Students queue through the night in freezing temperatures to secure a home in Exeter.

It shows the lengths to which those studying at the city’s university will go to get a property – almost a year before the tenancies are due to begin.

And it comes as Exeter City Council is to limit the amount of accommodation that can be converted to student use …

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The fate of one of Cardiff’s most prominent fire stations threatened with development into a major student flat complex has yet to be decided.

Councillors examining the proposals by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service yesterday called for a site visit before they make a decision.

The proposal in front of them is for a development of more than 500 student flats on the site with a smaller three-bay fire station …

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An eight-storey student residence with 150 self-contained studios could be built on Ewer Street.

The new building, designed by TP Bennett for UKSA Ewer Street sarl, would occupy the car park site to the north-east of the railway line.

Documents submitted to Southwark Council with the planning application indicate that there are 3,102 student beds in the development pipeline in the borough …

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The House of Lords on Tuesday approved government plans to nearly triple tuition fees paid by university students.

The unelected assembly voted to raise student fees at English universities to a maximum of 9,000 pounds a year, backing a decision taken by the House of Commons last week.

Peers rejected Labour amendments which would have sent the plans back to the lower house for redrafting …

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Plans for student accommodation to replace a run-down former petrol station on one of Cambridge’s busiest junctions have been rejected by the city’s councillors.

The proposals for the land on the junction of Histon Road, Huntingdon Road, Victoria Road and Castle Street were for a four-storey building comprising of 94 student rooms and some retail space.

Tony Collins, the planning officer who recommended the proposals to be approved, said in his report to the councillors: “This proposal would, in my view, make a positive contribution to this part of the city both functionally and visually, replacing what has for some time been an eyesore, on one of the principal entrances to the city, with a well proportioned building which properly respects its immediate context.” …

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Plans for student accommodation to replace a run-down former petrol station on one of Cambridge’s busiest junctions have been rejected by the city’s councillors.

The proposals for the land on the junction of Histon Road, Huntingdon Road, Victoria Road and Castle Street were for a four-storey building comprising of 94 student rooms and some retail space.

Tony Collins, the planning officer who recommended the proposals to be approved, said in his report to the councillors: “This proposal would, in my view, make a positive contribution to this part of the city both functionally and visually, replacing what has for some time been an eyesore, on one of the principal entrances to the city, with a well proportioned building which properly respects its immediate context.” …

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Winchester University is poised to ease its student housing problems with a new hall of residence.

It is preparing plans for a 500-bed facility on Burma Road, in between the King Alfred Campus and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

The local healthcare trust has sold the land to the university and a planning application for the five-block residence is due soon …

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Plymouth’s former Naafi building has been bulldozed to the ground.

The University of Plymouth-owned building – formerly the Hoe Centre – has been bulldozed to make way for student housing.

Next year the university is expected to build a 10-storey tower and a nine-storey block on the site, containing 517 student rooms, shops and cafes …

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Michael Sherley-Dale’s JMS Estates has bought an historic, vacant building near London’s Earls Court to convert into student housing.

In the third acquisition for JMS, the central London residential vehicle launched by Sherley-Dale a year ago, the company has bought the 32,000 sq ft Princess Beatrice House, Finborough Road, London SW10. The purchase price was not disclosed but thought to be below £12m.

“Princess Beatrice House is a prestigious historic building which is well suited to providing reasonably priced student accommodation with excellent facilities,” Sherley-Dale told Property Week …

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