The 2022/23 academic year saw a surge in the need for Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in the UK, in the aftermath of the pandemic years. We took a snapshot of the availability of PBSA across the country on 2 October 2023 to ask: one year later, how easy or difficult is it for students to find accommodation at this point in the cycle? SFG partners with Student Crowd who collates data with 100% coverage of UK PBSA.
Student First Group research papers offer insights on PBSA, student wellbeing, education trends, and expert analysis on higher education and accommodation.
This is our latest report on an ever-growing investment sector involving partnerships between universities, developers, investors and operators to create new or refurbished student housing. In the first research publication of this kind since 2018, we examine Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) structures, as well as income strips. We ask: how has this sector grown? Who is active in the market? What is the pipeline of projects? What are the current challenges? And – what might the future hold?
Student First Group (SFG) and CBRE jointly ran a seminar in late 2022, bringing together developers, operators and universities to ask this question. London is still experiencing a bottleneck in Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA): supply is falling behind demand from students across the UK and across the world who are drawn to London as one of the top international destinations for Higher Education. SFG has been building a profile of university requirements, actively matching supply with demand, and introducing universities to potential developments with a good fit. In this report, we summarise the points that we made in the seminar and distil the ideas brought to the table by the attendees, all of whom had first-hand experience of grappling with the issues.
