In another blog post in our series of student accommodation across the UK we take a look at the key themes across the country for student accommodation.
As more investment pours into the UK PBSA market, an estimated £9 billion a year, there will be more scrutiny about the value it brings for investors, students and the communities developments are located.
What can developers and investors learn from student feedback when looking for their next schemes?
James Forrester, managing director at StripeHomes, says: “The market will always dictate what is needed but it’s for developers and investors to read how it’s performing to acquire the best product to serve it.”
Of the finding here are the key stats broken down by region:
- 52% of students in Manchester are looking to remain in Manchester after they graduate university
- 53% Purpose built student accommodation [PBSA] in Liverpool has the highest score for social scene with 53% of students rating it as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’
- 83% of Newcastle students are either ‘extremely happy’ or ‘happy’ with their private PBSA
- 64% of students in Leicester stated their private PBSA represents ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ value for money
- 81% of second or more year students in Sheffield had managed to secure their accommodation for the next academic year by March
- 65% of students in London that weren’t happy with the locations of their accommodation said it was due to being too far away from university
- 73% of Leeds students living in PBSA rated the quality of their accommodation as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’
James Forrester, managing director at StripeHomes, said: “There’s are some fascinating insight from the report for the sector to digest.
“You only need to take the Newcastle data to see that 83% are happy with their PBSA – this means for developers like StripeHomes that we have to assess competitor schemes and go one step further to attract investment and students into schemes.
“This can be achieved through the luxury standard of the build, the inclusion of key requirements such as high speed internet and also creating social development where students can interact – all of which we are implementing in our Quayside View Studios development.
“If a developer came in and dropped the standards of a scheme then not only would it impact on next year’s data it would also struggle to sell its units and rent them out to a market that is already use to a high standard of accommodation.”
