Student accommodation giant forced to lower rents
Joe Lister, of Unite Group, says demand for the company's rentals has fallen as students stay at home.
Unite Group has been forced to lower rents at its student rentals as falling demand hits its portfolio.
Falling numbers of international students added to more British students opting to live at home while studying, is being blamed for the situation.
Despite being hopeful earlier in the year of being able to raise rents, the group has now had to lower them by 0.3% for the current academic year, The Times reports.
Dropping rents
This is the first time in more than 25 years, apart from during the Covid lockdown, where Unite has had to bring rents down.
University locations such as Nottingham, Leicester and Sheffield have seen demand for student rooms fall. Many home students are choosing to continue living with their parents to keep costs down.
By dropping the rents, Unite has been able to fill 95.6% of its 72,000 places, up from 95.3% last year.
Joe Lister, Chief Executive of Unite (pictured), said. “We have delivered reservations in line with our expectations as student demand and university behaviour evolved through this sales cycle.”
Disposal
Unite has been looking at disposal of some of its halls of residence in response to falling demand.
The group has seen the valuation of its portfolio fall by almost 4% between July and September to just over £4.7billion, and it has now dropped around 8% this year.
