Year: 2011

Work has started on the latest phase of Preston’s booming student village. Developer Ice Blue Developments has started work on its £7.6m scheme to build a six-storey block of flats on the site of a former MOT garage on Walker Street close to the University of Central Lancashire’s city campus. It hopes the scheme, called Living City, will be ready in time for the new student intake in 2012 and follows the start of work on a 350-room block in the city’s converted former police station.

Simon Price, a director of the Preston-based developers, confirmed it started on site a fortnight ago.

He said: “We have started on the development on Walker Street and are hopeful of getting it completed in time for next term.” …

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A disused 1960s office block in the heart of Peterborough could be turned into a state of the art £7 million student flat complex. Plans to turn Hereward House – located above Wilkinson in Broadway, Peterborough, into flats for 234 students have been submitted to Peterborough City Council.

Building work on former Inland Revenue offices could start by the spring next year, with the first students from University Centre Peterborough moving into the complex in September 2013.

The plans include three bedroom, four bedroom and five bedroom flats, located in the current tower block and in a new ‘podium’ development which will be built alongside the block …

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The 32-storey tower will be built on South Lambeth Road to house 572 student bedrooms, a gym and a 25m swimming pool which will also be open to the public. The site has been identified in the London Plan and Vauxhall Nine Elms Business Opportunity Area as being suitable for tall buildings.

Designed by architect Feilden Clegg Bradley, the Vauxhall scheme will be Downing’s first foray into the London development market.

Ian Harrison, development manager at Downing, said: “Our proposals would transform an under-used site with high quality student accommodation and contribute new community leisure facilities to the local area …

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Controversial plans to demolish a Glasgow pub to make way for a block of student flats have been given the go ahead – by just one vote. But residents have vowed to fight the decision to allow developer Joe Logan to raze the Pewter Pot in North Woodside Road in the West End to build a 114-bed block of flats.

Almost 40 people squeezed into a City Chambers planning meeting on Tuesday at which councillors eventually voted to give the proposal the green light …

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Manchester Metropolitan University is seeking a contractor for student accommodation at its planned Birley Fields campus.

In June the university won planning permission for the £110m Hulme campus which will cater for nursing and teaching students in Hulme.

It includes a 250,000 sq ft five-storey academic building which will have lecture theatres, study areas and sports and arts facilities …

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A government planning inspector will have the final say on plans to build 99 homes in Earley after councillors in Wokingham gave blueprints the thumbs down.

The University of Reading’s bid to demolish a 10-storey building previously used as student accommodation and use the land at Sibly Hall for a residential settlement was unanimously refused by members of the planning committee at Wokingham Borough Council when it met on Wednesday, November 16.

Members agreed that the housing would not be an ideal use of the land, that the proposals did not compensate for a proposed loss of trees and that the plans lacked amenities and services …

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Developer Quintain made solid progress on its development site by Wembley football stadium in the first half, but at the cost of higher debt levels.

The company pre-sold a student housing block under construction to Keystone & Partners, receiving £14.5m upfront, with a further £38.5m due when the works are complete. It has also sold an ageing hotel for £15m. That cash will relieve some of the upward pressure on gearing as construction works continue at Wembley and elsewhere.

Quintain is building a second student housing block in Shoreditch for its 50/50 joint venture with the Wellcome Trust …

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Plans for a huge student accommodation complex have been given the go-ahead despite strong opposition from residents. The £35 million development will surround the former Equity Shoe factory – which has also been converted into accommodation for 70 students by the company.

The latest project has been approved by Leicester City Council’s planning committee, despite 347 objections in the form of letters and petitions.

Work to build the complex of five, seven and eight-storey buildings, which will have indoor and outdoor communal areas, is set to begin next month …

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British-based, sharia-compliant investment firm Solum Asset Management will launch the first “investment sukuk” in the first quarter of next year, treating Islamic bonds as investment vehicles rather than debt instruments, its chief executive said.

Unlike traditional sukuk, which are akin to conventional debt products, the 200 million sterling ($310 million) Student Accommodation Investment Sukuk will use equity to provide holders with an annual yield of 4 to 6 percent, said chief executive Safdar Alam at the company’s launch in Bahrain.

Alam, former head of Islamic finance at J.P. Morgan, said the company was seeking to delink Islamic finance products from debt-heavy conventional finance …

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Student accommodation specialist Ocon Construction has been awarded a £6.45m contract for a scheme in Nottingham.

Manchester-based Ocon said the 210-unit development is expected to be ready for the start of the next academic year.

The four-block scheme is a speculative development by CATSUP and will feature a mix of studio flats and en-suite study bedrooms in clusters with their own kitchen, living and dining areas …

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