The Glasgow Mill, which had been in production for more than a century shut two weeks ago with the loss of 15 jobs.
It has now been put up for sale and is expected to attract bids from developers.
The multi-storey complex, in Dunaskin Street on the banks of the River Kelvin, comes with more than an acre of land …
Failure is more instructive than success. That’s a lesson with which every investor – indeed, every human being – should be wearily familiar, but it often goes unobserved because success is much easier to talk about. So this week I’m focusing on a property investment that looks singularly bad: so-called ‘student pods’.
‘Pod’ is a marketing buzzword for an individual room in a student accommodation block. These are widely advertised to private investors on the basis of ‘guaranteed’ or ‘assured’ net yields of up to 10 per cent. Such figures sound exceptionally attractive – readers hardly need reminding how rare double-digit yields are in today’s low interest-rate world. But they come with at least four substantial risks, which in the unregulated world of buy-to-let investments are easy for developers and brokers to gloss over.
First, lettings risk. We have long vaunted the merits of the student-lettings market, but aggressive development may be leading to oversupply in some areas. Unite, the listed student accommodation player, this week warned that competition for projects was pushing up land and build costs in London. If embattled pod developer Middle England Developments is to be believed, the Liverpool market is also saturated …
Student housing developer Unite Group (UTG) has signalled a move back into northern property markets, purchasing a site in Huddersfield on which it plans to build a 378-bed scheme. Chief executive Mark Allan expects the intense competition for London plots to depress returns in its key post-crisis stomping ground. “Capital is flooding in and the planning environment has got more challenging. More capital chasing fewer sites means higher land and build costs,” he explains.
This marks an abrupt – and somewhat contrarian – reversal of the company’s previous position. As recently as last August Unite cited its “continued focus on London as our core market” and pledged that its exposure to the capital would continue to increase. “We avoided the regions for a while because we wanted to see how universities would respond to changes in tuition fees. We had more confidence in London because of the undersupply of beds,” says Mr Allan.
But the return differential has become hard to ignore. Mr Allan says total development costs in Huddersfield are roughly £37,000 a bed, compared with roughly £110,000 in London’s Zone 2. “We can easily justify the Huddersfield development with rents of £100 a week, which isn’t too optimistic. The yield on cost should be north of 10 per cent,” he says, estimating the comparable figure in London at 8.5-8.75 per cent. On average, residential land in the capital now costs more than at the previous peak in 2007, according to a recent report by Savills …
University chiefs have announced ambitious plans to transform the Pittville Campus into a student village with an extra 450 bedrooms.Villa style residential blocks would be built on the site where disused classrooms stand, and a small retail unit and sports facilities are also planned.
There are already 214 bedrooms at the Pittville Campus – which has not been used for teaching since 2011 – but University of Gloucestershire bosses said additional accommodation was needed.
Vice Chancellor Stephen Marston said: “At present, the university is unable to guarantee accommodation to all its first-year students, a requirement that is clearly important to prospective students and their parents …
Student accommodation group Unite revealed strong uptake levels in a trading update from March 6 to May 13.
The firm, which provides 3,372 bed spaces in 10 halls of residence across Liverpool, employing 50 staff, said 75% of its total stock has been let for the 2013/14 academic year. This compares with 62% at the start of March and 72% at the same time last year …
A £40MILLION housing development for more than 700 students is planned for the West End. But two local councillors believe the area in Glasgow already has so many students it has reached tipping point.
Liverpool-based developer Downing has applied for permission to build student accommodation on a site bounded by Benalder Street and Beith Street in Partick, near the bottom of Byres Road.
It is part of the site where Tesco wanted to build a controversial development which included a superstore, 650 student flats, 220 private homes and leisure facilities …
Edinburgh Napier University is currently developing a brand new student accommodation site with 778 en suite bedrooms in Fountainbridge.
The site is across the road from the Fountain Park complex, within walking distance of the city centre, our Merchiston campus and direct buses to Craiglockhart and Sighthill …
A blueprint has been lodged for a 394-bed student housing complex near Chester Railway Station.
Watkin Jones is seeking planning consent for accommodation on the former Chester City Transport depot site, with a design incorporating the historic tram tracks and their supporting granite setts.
The ‘Tramways’ scheme includes nine individual studios and 385 bedrooms located within ‘cluster flats’ …
The £6.4m contract will deliver rooms for 179 students at Cardiff University’s Talybont halls of residence complex.
The new building will be called Talybont Gate.
Construction started on site last month and is scheduled to complete in summer 2014. A total of 27 clusters containing six, seven, and ten bedrooms will be developed over the six storeys …
Leicester’s long-disused main post office is set to be converted into student flats.
The four-storey 1930s building in Bishop Street has stood empty – costing the taxpayer £30,000 a year – since it was bought by Leicester City Council for £1.4 million in 2008.
The council has agreed a deal to sell the building to student accommodation developer IMAP Properties, but the sale has not yet been formally completed …
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