Unite Students, the UK’s largest provider of student accommodation, has acquired a new development site in the heart of Nottingham City Centre.

The site at Lower Parliament Street has planning consent for a 270-bed development. The development will retain part of the existing property at the front of the site, with the remainder being a new build. It will be the first development Unite Students has built in Nottingham city centre.

Total development costs for the scheme, which will open to students in time for start of the 2024/25 academic year, are estimated to be £34 million.

Unite Students already owns and manages approximately 1,900 student accommodation beds in Nottingham across three separate sites, with a further 970 beds to be added in the city with this latest development and the company’s 700-bed development in Derby Road, which is already under construction and due to open in 2023.

This newly acquired site, which is close to Nottingham Trent University’s campus as well as the University of Nottingham’s planned city centre campus development for final-year and postgraduate students, will be primarily targeted at second, third year and postgraduate students. Work to redevelop the site is due to begin towards the end of 2022.

Nottingham is home to two high-quality universities, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, serving 64,000 full-time students. The city has seen a 20 per cent increase in students seeking accommodation in recent years, creating a clear need for new high-quality, purpose-built homes.

Nick Hayes, Group Property Director of Unite Students, said:

“Through this opportunity we are able to cater for the increased number of students wanting to attend the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, both located in a growing regional city.

“This commitment increases our secured pipeline to over £800 million, its highest ever level, and we continue to see opportunities to add further schemes in London and prime regional markets at attractive returns”.

For further information, please contact:

Unite Students press office on 0117 4506300 or email press.office@unitestudents.com

About Unite Students

Unite Students is the UK’s largest owner, manager and developer of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) serving the country’s world-leading higher education sector. We provide homes to 76,000 students across 177 properties in 27 leading university towns and cities. We currently partner with over 60 universities across the UK.

Our people are driven by a common purpose: to provide a ‘Home for Success’ for the students who live with us. Unite Students’ accommodation is safe and secure, high quality, and affordable. Students live predominantly in en-suite study bedrooms with rents covering all bills, insurance, 24-hour security and high-speed Wi-Fi. We also achieved a five-star British Safety Council rating in our last audit.

We are committed to raising standards in the student accommodation sector for our customers, investors and employees. This is why our new Sustainability Strategy, launched in 2021, includes a commitment to become net zero carbon across our operations and developments by 2030.

Founded in 1991 in Bristol, the Unite Group is an award-winning Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), listed on the London Stock Exchange. For more information, visit Unite Group’s corporate website www.unitegroup.com or the Unite Students’ site www.unite-students.com